Re: [orca-list] First time trying linux

[kendell clark <coffeekingms gmail com>]

you should write a review of vinux. That was the best review of vinux 
i've ever seen, lol. I second that recommendation re vinux. I didn't 
know about the qt at-spi stuff but i got equally frustrated with orca in 
unity. Weird issues that are hard to reproduce unless you count lots of 
unity segfaults, rhythmbox completely crashes and burns, and  some weird 
bugs in unity itself. Vinux 3.2.1 is the way to go, unless you want the 
last lts, then it's 3.0.1 currently, but there's a 3.0.2 which is 
supposed to provide newer orca, kernel and newer packages.  It's still 
in beta afaik.
thanks
Kendell clark
 On 01/13/2012 09:49 PM, Alex Midence wrote:
> 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.
> > _______________________________________________
> > orca-list mailing list
> > orca-list gnome org
> > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list
> > Visit http://live.gnome.org/Orca for more information on Orca.
> > The manual is at 
> > http://library.gnome.org/users/gnome-access-guide/nightly/ats-2.html
> > The FAQ is at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/FrequentlyAskedQuestions
> > Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org
> > Find out how to help at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/HowCanIHelp
> _______________________________________________
> orca-list mailing list
> orca-list gnome org
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list
> Visit http://live.gnome.org/Orca for more information on Orca.
> The manual is at 
> http://library.gnome.org/users/gnome-access-guide/nightly/ats-2.html
> The FAQ is at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/FrequentlyAskedQuestions
> Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org
> Find out how to help at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/HowCanIHelp