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Re: [orca-list] First time trying linux

This discussion reminds me of the first time I tried linux. Ubuntu was around version 6… it was back around 
2007. I downloaded it and booted up on a vmware machine. I had to follow the instructions to navigate through 
the first part without speech. I pressed alt f2… typed orca, and was immediately presented with that command 
line that I had met in Mac OS X, and somewhat feared. The next several days I spent sorting through online 
documentation, trying to install speech dispatcher to make orca more stable, and trying to get a bleeding 
edge version of firefox to replace the one that came with the distribution, so that I could access the 
internet. 

Yeah I have to admit having it come up speaking from the get go makes things easier if you are a newby 
(though vinux did not do this for me on my acer), but I have to admit, this introduction through vinux really 
has left me wanting more. The almost absolute instability of the GUI, which constantly gets hung up, has sent 
me running for the console, and looking up command line tools to replace the Gnome Panel. 

It's a good motivator… not necessarily a matter of sink or swim anymore, but a matter of either swim, or 
accept a low functioning system. 

Regards
Justin Harford 
On 14-01-2012, at 1:08, kendell clark wrote:


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


_______________________________________________
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
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