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

[Thomas Ward <thomasward1978 gmail com>]

Hello Bill,



On 3/17/13, Bill K. Dengler <billkd2008 gmail com> wrote:
> why? Is he doing a large deployment or something? What about... 12.10?

As someone else said that's irrelevant. The problem with  Ubuntu 12.10
is that the version of Unity that ships with the OS by default isn't
nearly as accessible as the Unity 2D desktop that ships with 12.04. To
add to that LibreOffice 3.6, which also comes with Ubuntu 12.10, has
serious access issues and I would not in good conscience recommend a
new Linux user install a Linux distribution on there that has these
sorts of access issues. Its one thing for an advanced user such as
myself to install it, because I know how to work around and resolve
said issues but someone relatively new to Linux won't. Use a bit of
common sense here.

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

Once again you are assuming that this person is a relatively advanced
Linux user, more or less knows what he or she is doing, and I think
that once again raring and the master branch is strictly for advanced
users not newbies. My advice is coming from that point of view.

> 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!

Now, you are twisting my advice way out of shape, and are putting
words and intentions into my message that was not intended.

> 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).

That's debatable. the free NVDA screen reader for Windows has this
same feature, and it will tell me if a line of Python code is indented
1, 2, or 3 tab spaces etc. However, I will agree that Orca's ability
to speak formatting of code is a big help to blind programmers.

.> 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.

No, you don't.  Linux isn't for everyone, but everyone can use it if
they want too. I think with the right distribution Linux can be equal
to Windows and Mac in terms of access. It just requires the proper
configuration and sometimes the right combination of apps.