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Re: [orca-list] Which distribution to switch to from Windows? [was "Re: A real message with a question"]

Yeah, Windows 7 is extremely resource intensive.  It's using up about 39% of my 4 gb of ram here at work on 
my laptop.  And that's an i7 processor.  I've got a Debian server on a core 2 duo Dell next to me that I run 
a web-based course creation platform on and it's barely breaking a sweat.

Alex M


-----Original Message-----
From: orca-list-bounces gnome org [mailto:orca-list-bounces gnome org] On Behalf Of Christopher Chaltain
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2012 11:26 AM
To: orca-list gnome org
Subject: Re: [orca-list] Which distribution to switch to from Windows? [was "Re: A real message with a 
question"]

Right now I run Ubuntu 11.04 (Vinux 3.2.1) on the bare metal of my host system. In virtual machines, using 
VMware Player, I run Ubuntu 12.04 (Vinux 4.0) and Windows 7. this is all 64-bit. I also have some virtual 
machines lying around to play with some other distributions.

In the VM where I have Windows 7 running, I use both JAWS and NVDA. I don't use braille however.

I'd suggest making sure your system has the resources to handle what you want to use it for. My system's 
performance increased dramatically when I increased the RAM from 4G to 8G and gave Windows 7 a lot more RAM 
of it's own.


On 29/11/12 08:24, Alex Midence wrote:

Hi, John,

I don't use quite the same setup you have in mind but one that is akin 
to it.  I use windows xp with ubuntu 12.04 in a virtual machine.  I 
have never been able to get braille to work inside the virtual machine 
for me.  I don't know if that will be the same for you but, I thought 
you might want to know that this was a possibility.  Linux should work 
fine because the hardware is communicating directly witht he OS but, 
I'm worried that Windows will be problematic for you since I 
personally haven't had any success in getting my braille display to 
work with the virtual operating system.  For me, this is an annoyance 
as I use speech but, for you, it could prove considerably more 
inconvenient that that.  Now, having said all that, I use vmware not 
virtualbox so, it could be a quirk of Vmware I'm running into.  Also, 
mine is a Focus 80 braille display so, that might be a factor as well.
 My advice to you is to have a sighted person standing by just in case 
when you test it out for the first time.

Best regards,
Alex M

On 11/29/12, John J. Boyer <john boyer abilitiessoft com> wrote:

We are currently using Windows 7 for office work. I am thinking of 
installing Ubuntu 12.04.1 as the base system and running Windows 7 in 
virtualbox. I do need to keep Windows for testing software and for 
occasional use. I will be using a Braille display, since I am deaf as 
well as blind. Specifically, it is the Braille Note mPower. The 
Windows screenreader will be Jaws. I've heard that it works in a VM. 
My business manager does most of the office work, but I must be able 
to see what he is doing. We also use the machine for communication.

Thanks,
John

On Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 01:51:12PM +0100, Peter V gner wrote:

Hello,
Unfortunatelly this does not answer the original question however I 
must add it as I do like the idea.
I have recently installed arch using the jully talking arch which 
works well.
There were some little things I had to deal with until it started 
fully working like I wanted it to however what I like about arch is 
that they have nice wiki with a lot of perfectly written articles. 
While following their install and beginner guides you can learn how 
the distro works so you will then get prapared for some real maintenance.
With ubuntu it is still quicker to reinstall once something breaks 
up and I hope with arch power users can become just a bit more 
powerfull by knowig some more details.

The only thing which does not work for me in my arch install is 
accessible login screen. It uses gdm and I dont know how to launch 
orca and set all the appropriate accessibility related properties 
while gdm session starts.

Greetings

Peter



On 29.11.2012 07:55, D.J.J. Ring, Jr.  wrote:

Debian sid has GNOME Desktop with cinnemon  which is like GNOME 2 
and is accessible.

MATE is just like  GNOME 2 but uses mate applications which are 
inaccessible.

Debian Sid has latest GNOME 3 point something which just came out 
which makes GNOME 3 just likr GNOME 2 but only much better.  Ubuntu 
doesn't have it.

With Debian Sid you always have the latest packages and it rolls 
instead of being released.

Debian's problems are you have to add multimedia and non-free 
repositories to it.  Also Debian will not allow Firefox or 
Thunderbird because the icons  are copyrighted.

Also Debian used Desktop packages as does Ubuntu so if you wanted 
to remove mate-terminal  and put in gnome-terminal which talks, the 
package system says it has to remove the rest of GNOME.  Really stupid.

Easiest thing to do is install Debian MINT, edit /etc/apt/sources 
file and paste in Debian sources and put # in front of the Debian 
MINT sources.

You can use smxi to do updates.

Unfortunately you have to edit that script file and comment out the 
section that mentions Debian MINT because smxi thinks it will not work.

Debian is much easier to use than Ubuntu if you do a bit of work..

Also you need to know what drivers you nerd for wifi but once you 
know the name it is done for you.

Debian could use jockey-gtk but that darned FREE software policy 
does not allow that.

If Ubuntu goes back to a recular desktop, all will be well.

If someone made a working command line iso file of ARCH linux that 
talks I would go with that as it has the very new GNOME that one 
again talks even though it is designed for touch screen which is a 
seeing thing.  I would install ARCH in a heartbeat but I have tried 
three three times to install but I cannot do it, it is like the instructions are missing.

But even with Ubuntu going touch screen and MATE which is a 2.0 
like desktop, all that insanity is still better than Windows.

David

On Nov 28, 2012 7:53 PM, "Christopher Chaltain" <chaltain gmail com 
<mailto:chaltain gmail com>> wrote:

   Why wouldn't you consider Ubuntu? I think Ubuntu 12.04 LTS would be
   close to what you're looking for.

   On 28/11/12 18:48, John J. Boyer wrote:
    > I am thinking of switching from Windows to Linux for ofgice work.
   So I
    > want to avoid the bleeding edge, but I do want reasonably 
up-to-date
    > accessibility features and desktop. I'll be using LibreOffice.
What
    > would be a good compromise between Ubuntu and CentOS?
    >
    > Thanks,
    > John
    >
    > On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 06:23:07PM -0500, Thomas Ward wrote:
    >> Hello John,
    >>
    >>
    >> On 11/28/12, John J. Boyer <john boyer abilitiessoft com
   <mailto:john boyer abilitiessoft com>> wrote:
    >>>
    >>> My question is whether anyone has had experience with Orca on
   CentOS
    >>> 6.3.
    >>
    >> Well, is there something specific you want to know? About 
the only
    >> thing I can tell you is because CentOS is largely using 
Enterprise
    >> packages like Red Hat Enterprise the accessibility stack is
   extremely
    >> old. From what I can tell CentOS 6.3 is still using Gnome 2.x and
    >> at-spi 1.x, and they are way behind in terms of modern Orca
    >> dependencies etc. This isn't unusual for Enterprise Linux as 
every
    >> Enterprise system I've seen over the last couple of years is way
    >> behind in terms of VI access packages where distributions like
   Ubuntu
    >> try to stay on the bleeding edge of things.
    >>
    >> Cheers!
    >> _______________________________________________
    >> orca-list mailing list
    >> orca-list gnome org <mailto:orca-list gnome org>
    >> https://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
    >

   --
   Christopher (CJ)
   chaltain at Gmail
   _______________________________________________
   orca-list mailing list
   orca-list gnome org <mailto:orca-list gnome org>
   https://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
https://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.htm
l 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
https://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


--
John J. Boyer; President, Chief Software Developer Abilitiessoft, 
Inc.
http://www.abilitiessoft.com
Madison, Wisconsin USA
Developing software for people with disabilities

_______________________________________________
orca-list mailing list
orca-list gnome org
https://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
https://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



--
Christopher (CJ)
chaltain at Gmail
_______________________________________________
orca-list mailing list
orca-list gnome org
https://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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