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Re: [orca-list] Is Linux suitable for non-programmer/computer scientists?

See my responses below.

On 03/17/2013 05:36 PM, Bill K. Dengler wrote:

On 03/17/2013 06:23 PM, Thomas Ward wrote:

If you want a graphical environment such as Gnome or Unity, which
is similar to the Microsoft Windows  user interface, Ubuntu 12.04
is one place to start

why? Is he doing a large deployment or something? What about... 12.10?
That's irrelevant. Ubuntu 12.10 and beyond use Unity 3D, which isn't as accessible as 12.04, so therefore, for your best accessibility, you want to go with Ubuntu 12.04. 


but is by no means the only option. There are some

customized distributions such as Sonar Linux that has updated
versions of Orca etc

If you want updated versions of orca use raring and the master branch.
Can't get any better than that.


Except for the accessibility issues with Unity 3D.


  all ready to go. Just install Sonar and you have a fully

accessible fully up to date graphical user environment.

Yep... let's tell Canonical that their work of including Orca and a11y
tools on the live CDs is not appreciated and go recommend kangs
instead of fixing any issues that might exist! That's a wonderful way
to tell Canonical that their doing a great job with the Ubuntu a11y!
Don't worry about this. Use what makes sense for you. The developers working on Vinux at least, also work on Ubuntu accessibility and make these issues known to Canonical, so with a distribution like Vinux, you get the best of both worlds, an accessible distro with other accessibility issues addressed to make your life easier and accessibility issues still get fed back to Canonical, Ubuntu and Unity. 


As far as the command line environment itself goes it all depends
on who you ask and what their own personal opinion on the subject
is. I think that a blind user can easily use Linux using a
graphical environment such as Gnome with little to no knowledge of
the command line.

You could if you wanted to, but personally I use a mix of both. Once,
I used a cli with espeakup on Arch Linux to do everything but web
browsing(where I used a minimal XFCE session), and now I use a full
Unity desktop and just open terminals for file management, android
debugging, etc. Oh, and of course, scripting.
  However, as with all things the more you know about using the

command line it will give you some more advanced skills to
reconfigure your system, some advanced skills for trouble shooting
problems if and when they arise, and of course some command line
apps are just flat out more accessible in some cases than their
graphical counterparts.

agreed

So while knowledge of the command line isn't strictly necessary it
would still be a big help to know in case you need it.

As to your question about programming etc you don't have to be a
programmer or computer scientist to run and use Linux. While
programmers such as myself are drawn to Linux because of the
availability of the source code, free programming tools, whatever
that doesn't exclude the average Joe and Jane using it as well.
Ubuntu 12.04, which I happen to be running, is very easy to install
and most of the common applications like Firefox, LibreOffice,
Totem Movie Player, etc are accessible and work out of the box. It
doesn't matter one way or another if I know how to program or not
because using Firefox for browsing the web or writing a report in
LibreOffice Writer would be the same for me as you.

It's definitely easier to use Linux for programming(I.E. Orca's "speak
indentation and justification" checkbox makes it lots easier to
program in python, etc).
But, like the "Linux is for third world countries" claim, you don't
have to be a programmer, be a nerd, or live in a third world country
to use Gnu/Linux.

Cheers!


On 3/17/13, James AUSTIN <james londonsw15 gmail com> wrote:

Hi All,

I don't post too often but read this list with great interest.

I'm not going to go into my reasons here, but I am beginning to
think that my current  access solution could be in the process of
stagnating.

I would be very sad to say goodbye to it, but the time might come
when such a course is necessary.

Reading the list suggests that a great deal of command line
knowledge and complicated bits and piece are involved in Linux,
even after all of this time.  I'm not exactly a command line
newbie, but many of you are far more conversant than I am.

Do any of you have  any suggestions where I might start if I did
decide to jump on the Linux band wagon please? I have been
reading a lot about Ubuntu and it seems to be the favourite among
many.

Thank you and please feel free to write to me off-list if you
prefer.

Take care James _______________________________________________
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



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_______________________________________________
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
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