Hi All.
This is, for want of a better term, an official statement from the vinux
project. Comments inline below with an over all outlook at the end.
On 24/08/2012 18:38, Christopher Chaltain wrote:
On 24/08/12 11:48, Kyle wrote:
To answer the question of why we have Sonar and Vinux, we need to take
a
step back and ask also why we have Debian, GRML, Knoppix/Adriane,
Ubuntu, Trisquel, Linux Mint, all the other Ubuntu remixes, Fedora,
Gentoo, Arch, Slackware and all kinds of other Linux distros. Would
it
not be better if they all merged, especially all the Debian/Ubuntu
derivatives, and gave us a single distro to work with instead of all
the
duplicated efforts?
All true, but just because we have so many distributions, and the
nature
of open source lends itself to such fragmentation, doesn't mean we have
to replicate that situation on the accessibility side. Of
course,there's
absolutely nothing wrong with someone spinning off another
distribution,
but there's also absolutely nothing wrong with people wanting to
encourage more cooperation where possible and reduce duplicate efforts
wherever we can.
It seems to me that some of the same people who are
having problems with the release of a new blind-friendly Linux distro
have already written off Vinux as a lost cause/dead project. I really
hope I'm wrong about this, but this is my observation so far.
I'm not sure if you think vinux is a lost cause or if you think others
perceive that, but I don't think vinux is a lost cause or a dead
project. Work on vinux 4.0, which will be based on Ubuntu 12.04 is
proceeding.
Work on Vinux 4.0 is indeed proceeding at a steady pace. There are bugs
that
we are working on that need to be ironed out to insure a stable and
hassle
free experience both for users and developers. Because this is an LTS
release,
our aim is to insure as many bugs as possible are ironed out so it is
suitable
for most environments including production environments. As always, we
would
welcome help from programmers as this will insure that bugs are ironed
out at
a faster rate. Anyone interested is more than welcome to join our
development
list to offer their services,
vinux-development+subscribe googlegroups com
Also, it makes sense to have Sonar as a choice, because it offers
GNOME
classic and gnome-shell based on the image that is downloaded rather
than using Unity2d, which is in fact dead upstream, and will
certainly
not be included in Ubuntu 12.10 or any later version of Ubuntu.
True again, but there's no reason this choice couldn't be folded into
Vinux. If it were, then we'd have one distribution where we could
choose
between Unity 2D, Gnome Shell or Gnome Classic, plus console access and
the other enhancements included in Vinux.
Also,
Vinux focuses on the Ubuntu LTS releases mostly, so Sonar also fills
in
the gap in the release cycle, as it has been confirmed that the next
Sonar release will take place within a couple of weeks of the Ubuntu
12.10 release.
Vinux provides long term support on the LTS releases, which is good for
people who use Ubuntu in a production environment and need something
stable, but they also generate versions of Vinux based on interim
Ubuntu
releases. I'm using Vinux 3.2.1 based on ubuntu 11.04 to write this
message. I guess you could say that because of this Vinux focuses
mostly
on the LTS releases, but I think this slightly exaggerates the true
situation. Furthermore, the plans for Vinux are to move the
accessibility infrastructure along ahead of Ubuntu, so I think there
will be even more work done with Vinux on the interim releases. I'm not
positive about this though and best to hear this from the Vinux
development team directly.
CJ, you are correct. While our focus is to produce stable LTS releases,
we
do indeed release experimental versions inbetween to insure our users
can
try out and take advantage of the latest accessibility improvements.
This
also allows developers to develop/test improvements behind the scenes
to
Ubuntu.
Yes, a merger can be good, but in this case, is it really
the best possible solution? This is just my opinion, but I do think
there is room for another choice in this situation.
I'm all for choice, but I don't see how a merger would hinder our
choice
at all. Furthermore, with pooled resources, our choices might even
increase as more resources are brought to bare on the issues that
currently aren't being addressed with these efforts. I also have no
idea
if the people behind Sonar and the people behind Vinux talked at all or
not. Like I said, we are where we are, and there's nothing wrong with
that, but it does seem like more could be accomplished with synergy and
cooperation than fragmentation.
As far as I'm aware, the guys behind Sonar did not contact any of our
development team to discuss possible collaboration. We would have been
happy
to discuss options with them. There may still have been a separate spin
which
we of course have no problem with, but we could have helped improve the
distro. For example, We are currently assisting F123 to improve their
images.
I am sure every distribution has its target audience. Distributions like
this
will give people the chance to try the latest and greatest with an
alternative
desktop, they have their place a long side Vinux. Vinux is a distribution
which aims to cater both for end users and developers a like. We aim to
provide a fully accessible system out of the box that is usable by
everyone,
weather you're sighted or visually impaired, a console user or GUI user.
It is
also very useful as a testing platform for developers. I think its unfair
to
say our goals have changed. Our goals are pretty much still the same as
they
were 2 years ago when Tony began the project. To provide a fully
accessible,
freely available system out of the box with the most usable applications
available to us included. Because we have less developers working on the
project, and because the project is maintained solely by volunteers,
things
take longer to get done. But rest assured Vinux is still very much alive.
You
can keep up with the status of development by subscribing to our various
lists,
vinux-development+subscribe googlegroups com
and
vinux-support+subscribe googlegroups com
People under estimate how much work goes in to a project like this. At
present, Vinux has various teams hard at work on Vinux 4.0. We have our
testing team who are testing out our nightly builds frequently and
providing
feedback to our development team with any issues they encounter. The
development team are working as hard as they can, time permitting to
insure as
many bugs are ironed out as much as possible, to insure console speech is
working in a satisfactory fashion, and to insure that we can provide new
and
improved features for our users for example an easier synthesizer
installer
for other voices, as well as A11Y improvements of course, although we
could
really do with more help from programmers. Our documentation team are
working
hard to insure we have adequate documentation for people making the
switch
from Gnome to Unity. Finally, our PR team are working hard to insure we
will
be able to supply Vinux Branded Computers, Laptops, pen drives and other
merchandise when Vinux 4.0 is released. Unfortunately, this all takes time
and
it has never been our practices to release a half put together Vinux
version,
where most things work but some don't. We would rather release a version
that
is as stable as we can possibly make it and if that means holding off
releasing for a few months, then that's a sacrifice we have to take. Vinux
4.0
will be well worth the wait.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for your
continued
support and continued use of Vinux. When Tony left, i dare say people
thought
the project was over. I can assure you this isn't the case, and that the
project is very much a live. Please feel free to join us at the addresses
provided above to find out about the latest improvements in Vinux, as well
as
getting involved in the project directly. Feel free to post any further
questions relating to Vinux directly to the Vinux lists, so as not to
clutter
the Orca list unnecessarily. We look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks for reading,
Mo.
Vinux Project Coordinator.
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