Re: [orca-list] First time trying linux

[Alex Midence <alex midence gmail com>]

I wouldn't recommend Ubuntu 11.10 to someone who hasn't used Linux 
with Orca before.  There are way way way too many accessibility holes in 
Unity right now.  Vinux 3.2 is based on Ubuntu 11.04 and it works just 
fine.  You still get relatively recent packages and you have all your 
accessibility stuff pre-configured for you.  Best of all:  it's not on 
Unity.  This means that the community of users who could help him out with 
any problems he may run into is larger since it's using gnome 2.32 which 
we all know well.  He didn't ask for a distro that was on the bleeding 
edge.  He said he's new to Linux and wants one he can go with to try it 
out for the first time.  Oneiric is too full of a11y holes and has a 
totally new approach, Debian requires too much knowledge and would only 
frustrate him with its advanced requirements and possible hardware 
hurdles, Fedora is a pain to install, 
Arch is absolutely too advanced, don't know anything about Suse so, I 
won't comment on them but, honestly, I can't think of a better distro for 
someone to try Linux out with all the accessibility bells and whistles 
than 
Vinux.  All the work is done for you and the user community actually 
prides itself on its friendliness towards rank newbies.  I speak from 
experience.  I started using Vinux in August of 2010 and kept it as my 
primary distro until about a month and a half ago when I more or less 
switched over to Debian because I'm doing more server-type stuff now and 
all the technical publications I'm going through use it to teach their 
concepts. 
Anyway, you couldn't ask for a more helpful, patient and friendly bunch of 
folks than that group and installing Vinux without sighted assistance is 
seriously easy as it trying out a live CD.  There's even a pre-built 
virtual machine he could try out so he can stay in windows while trying 
Linux to see if he likes it and wants to pursue it.  Oh, and say what you 
Will about Vinux not keeping up with bleeding edge mainstream software like 
Gnome3 or stuff like that but, work is currently underway to get Debian 
packages created for qt-at-spi's recent full release, the latest ports of 
at-spi2 and the latest builds of Orca.  People won't have to install them 
from source if they want them and they will have the most recent versions. 
I don't know another distro that can boast that, certainly not Ubuntu 
propper. They're waitinf for their April long term release for all that 
stuff.  Ther's also talk about a multidesktop testers version of Vinux 
with pre-installed Unity, Gnome3, KDE, and XFCE so people can try them out 
now 
that lots of a11y support is coming along.  By the way, if anyone wants to 
help out with that effort with testing and, especially with development of 
that edition, you'll find an appreciative reception.

Regards,
Alex M

On Fri, 13 Jan 2012, Thomas Ward wrote:

> Hi Andy,
>
> Well, it is true that Vinux is running behind the other distributions
> when it comes to the latest and greatest versions of packages, but I
> also know its both stable and new users probably aren't concerned with
> bleeding edge yet. I feel getting a stable and very accessible version
> of Linux on a new users system takes presidents over weather they have
> the latest version of LibreOffice, Firefox, etc.
>
> For example, just over the last week or so I've seen several messages
> on how to switch Ubuntu 11.10 over to the 2d version of Unity so they
> can get maximum accessibility out of the Unity desktop.  That might be
> fine for someone like myself who has used Ubuntu Linux since version 6
> or so, but I don't think a new user should have to learn to setup
> Orca, reconfigure the desktop environment, and learn both Orca and
> Linux all at once. Vinux is a nice compromise where the accessibility
> is already setup and someone can learn Orca and Linux without being
> forced to know from day one how to get everything up and running with
> accessibility before they learn the OS and screen reader.
>
> To me its a choice of starting someone out at the shallow end of the
> pool, teach them to swim, and work there way to the deep end, or just
> throw them head long into the deep end of the pool and tell them to
> sink or swim. I can say that no one really likes being tossed into the
> deep end of the pool and being forced to sink or swim from day one.
>
> HTH
>
>
> On 1/13/12, Andy B <sonfire11 gmail com> wrote:
> > Vinux is so far behind though... And I'm sure many new users have found help
> > getting orca started in Ubuntu 11.10.
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