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Re: [orca-list] Where Is Vinux was: Re: check this out

Hi Mobeen,
I just have a couple of questions as you are already aware that I promote Vinux in India at a very official level. 
firstly, Do we expect gnome 3.6 to be a part of Vinux 4.0?
If yes, then it will be a big boost because with the latest version of Orca, gnome 3.6 would be the best combination. I also ask this question because I hav to decide on focusing my promotional energies. I believe in the long run, Unity 2.d has no future so I got to see how Gnome shell 3.6 works. Secondly, the latest version of TB and firefox have proven to be very accessible with the key echo problems etc ironed out. 
I do hope that all those versions will be in.
Happy hacking.
Krishnakant.

On 08/25/2012 02:55 AM, Mobeen Iqbal wrote:

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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