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

Congrats!
This is very timely as I'm just installing now,on a new to me computer, and hopefully soon will have another 
to use as a testbed. 
I'm looking forward to testing F123, and it sounds like I'll be able to recommend F123 to folks around here 
who would have difficulty having to convert 
an accessible distro that's in English to Spanish. 
The fine help system should save me some support hours also...lol., and I should have little trouble filling 
in many of the blanks as I've been using  
arch a lot this last year. 
More off list later.
Oh, and the virtulize script sounds very interesting/finally have hardware that should be able to run a VM!
--
B.H.


On Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 03:35:30PM -0300, Fernando Botelho wrote:

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/

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