[orca-list] F123 available for download - easy switch to Orca Master

[Fernando Botelho <Fernando Botelho F123 org>]

Hi everyone,

I want to announce the availability of the new F123 (pronounced F 1 2 3).

Since this is a fairly technical list, some of you will remember F123 
because we supported improvements to the Compiz Fusion eZoom plugin, to 
Orca, and the WebGTK library, and more. But others will remember that we 
try to make life easier for those who are just starting. This message 
tries to offer information that is relevant for both beginners and more 
advanced users.

F123 was based on Ubuntu in its previous versions, but now it is based 
on ARCH and Manjaro, just like Sonar. We like Ubuntu and love Vinux, but 
we wanted to have more recent versions of Orca available to our 
non-technical users. We also prefer Gnome and Mate over Unity. We cannot 
get into the merits of these decisions in a lengthy online debate right 
now, this is just a quick explanation of the direction we have taken. We 
respect and accept the decisions that others have made.

In practice, these are some of the things F123 offers in terms of 
default settings, commands, and options:

* Help Mode

Imagine this is the first time you try F123. You do not know how to 
control the volume of the speech synthesizer, how to get a list of 
applications, or anything else. With F123, the first time you turn it 
on, you will get a help page opened through Firefox with all the most 
basic questions answered. You will also get tips read to you every time 
you open one of the core applications such as Firefox, Thunderbird, 
Calc, Writer, or the text editor which in our case is Pluma (because of 
the recent changes to Gedit spoiling the easy F10 access to the menu 
bar. Next on the list, replacing Nautilus with Nemo or PCmanFM, but lets 
not get distracted.

In any case, the help mode can be turned off by advanced users or 
anybody who no longer needs the tips nor the Firefox Help file by 
entering the following command on the Terminal:
deactivate-help

When lending the computer to someone who is just starting, just turn 
help back on with, you guessed it:
activate-help

In the Spanish and Portuguese versions of F123 these commands have their 
respective translations.

It is important to mention that help files in the English version will 
be updated remotely in the following few days, as they are still 
unfinished. This will not be an issue for subscribers of this list, but 
it is worth mentioning. The Spanish help files are more complete, but 
just as with the Portuguese version, they will receive continuous remote 
updates as time and resources allow.

Finally, I should mention that F123 is currently using Gnome Shell, but 
we cannot wait to launch a version that uses Mate.

* Keyboard Shortcuts

We have tried to follow the same commands as Vinux and Sonar whenever 
possible to make everybody's life easier. Here are some examples:

CTRL+Escape = opens simplified menu.
Alt+F1 = opens full list of software by category
Orca left and right = voice rate
Orca up and down = voice pitch
CTRL+Super up and down = volume

CTRL+Alt E = opens Thunderbird
CTRL+Alt T = opens Terminal
CTRL+Alt O = restarts orca and speech-dispatcher, to be used when speech 
stops suddenly.
CTRL+Alt P = opens pidgin
CTRL+Alt a = opens the help page just like help mode does.
CTRL+Alt f = opens firefox
CTRL+Alt G = Used to open Gedit, now opens Pluma, which has the 
traditional Gedit interface.
CTRL+Alt H = opens home folder with Nautilus.
CTRL+Alt M = opens universal access settings which includes settings for 
magnification.
Super+Alt M = activates magnifier just like in Sonar and others.
Super and minus or super and equals will increase or decrease magnification.
ctrl super M = mutes and unmutes
Super + M = Will minimize all windows and place you on desktop.

* Terminal Commands

Just like with the commands mentioned earlier, the folowing are also 
available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, depending on which 
version of F123 you download. These are simple but very useful:

search-file
This command will do a search for filenames that is recursive and 
ignores capitalization, and will list matches. Command would be 
search-file string, where string can be a single word or when quotes are 
used, a sentence.

search-file-with
This will search also recursively and without regard for capitalization, 
but will do the search inside files and list the names of those that 
contain the search string.

The default version of orca on F123 will be the latest stable taken from 
Manjaro and ARCH. However, we provide an easy command to switch from 
stable to Master and back. To switch to the master version of Orca 
simply enter:
experimental-orca

To go back to the stable version enter:
stable-orca

Of course, the more complicated commands available in ARCH, Manjaro, and 
Sonar remain available to you. The idea in F123 is to make things easier 
for beginners, but anybody who wants to dive deeper can at any time with 
commands like:
yaourt -S orca-git

Our intention here is to make it easier for beginners to use the latest 
Orca, either because they desperately need one of its latest 
improvements or simply to offer feedback to make it even better.

Then there are commands like virtualize which will grab the ISO you 
specify and boot it in a virtual machine for you. Something nice for 
both beginners and experienced users. This command is still not up, but 
should be ready for you to use in the next couple of days.

We are of course open to including additional commands for the terminal. 
Feel free to suggest your own. A full list will be available on our F123 
help page eventually.

* Regarding Keyboard Shortcuts and Other Screen Readers

We have seen online requests for Orca to use the same commands as are 
used by other screen readers, and even before such conversations we were 
already considering making the transition between screen readers easier 
by having different Orca defaults. After extensive research we came to 
the following conclusions:

1, There are many actions that exist under NVDA but not on Orca, and 
many that exist on Orca but not on NVDA, so many commands simply have no 
equivalent;
2, There are a few actions that already use the same key combination;
3, There are some that cannot be modified because of operating system 
considerations on Linux and/or Windows, and finally;
4, There are about 9 or more that make more sense the way they were 
implemented on Orca and maybe 4 that make more sense as they are on NVDA.

In conclusion, it made no sense to create two sets of manuals and two 
training courses, plus the multiple translations of each, just because 
of about 8 keyboard commands give or take a few.

Our own thinking on this matter is that we can all start a conversation 
with the NVDA folk, and over time, between 8 and 14 commands could 
become equal between the two screen readers. This would benefit 
everyone, it is just not as easy as simply remapping what is already 
there today.

* Our Code

You can find the code we use to build F123 on GitHub at:
https://www.GitHub.com/F123

You can download the 64-bit English version of F123 here:
http://public.F123.org/F123-Visual-en_us-64bits.iso


English 32-bit:
http://public.F123.org/F123-Visual-en_us-32bits.iso

Spanish 64-bit:
http://public.F123.org/F123-Visual-es_es-64bits.iso

Spanish 32-bit:
http://public.F123.org/F123-Visual-es_es-32bits.iso

Portuguese 64-bit:
http://public.F123.org/F123-Visual-pt_br-64bits.iso

Portuguese 32-bit:
http://public.F123.org/F123-Visual-pt_br-32bits.iso

We hope you will contribute to it. We also encourage everyone to help 
with testing and/or coding for MaryTTS, eSpeak, Speech-Dispatcher, Orca, 
Mate, LibreOffice, and good old Pidgin.

* F123 Services and Sustainability

F123 is a social enterprise dedicated to improving educational and 
employment opportunities for the blind through superior and affordable 
technologies, training, and technical support services. Should you or 
any organization you know need assistance in making education or 
employment more accessible to the blind, feel free to get in touch with 
us. F123 is particularly relevant to NGOs and schools because we are 
able to update software and help files remotely and automatically, 
keeping maintenance costs and complexity very low for end-users.

* Our Thanks

We want to especially thank Kyle Brouhard and Joanmarie Diggs for the 
outstanding work they do to make computers accessible to the blind 
around the world and for making projects such as F123 possible. We also 
want to thank everyone at ARCH, eSpeak, Gnome, LibreOffice, Manjaro, 
MaryTTS, Mate, Mozilla, Sonar, and Vinux for the high quality of their 
software. Finally, FOSS is only possible thanks to the generosity and 
wise self-interest of millions of individuals around the world, thank 
you all.

You may find a more complete thank you message and much more information 
on our site at:
http://F123.org/en

* Our Lists

Any list discussing ARCH or Manjaro-based technology can also help with 
F123 issues, but if you have F123-specific questions or suggestions, 
please use our lists. To sign-up, just send an email to the following 
addresses according to your preferred language:

List for English speakers:
f123english-subscribe yahoogroups com

Spanish speakers:
f123espanol-subscribe yahoogroups com

Portuguese speakers:
f123portugues-subscribe yahoogroups com

Best regards,

Fernando
_____________________________________
Fernando H. F. Botelho, Ashoka Fellow

President - F123
http://F123.org/en/