Re: [orca-list] why Skype works in Ubuntu 15.04

[Kyle <kyle4jesus gmail com>]

I can't speak for other distros, but this is the situation on Arch.
First of all, qt4 is deprecated, as is qt-at-spi. In many distros,
qt-at-spi and the rest of qt4 are only being maintained for a very small
handful of applications that haven't yet taken advantage of the
features, including much better accessibility, that qt5 has to offer.
Since more applications are being rebuilt against qt5 recently, the
number of applications that are choosing to build against qt4 is
continuing to decrease rapidly. Sadly, Microsoft has apparently chosen
to ignore the latest qt developments, so their Skype applicaition, which
is incidentally the only Microsoft application I am aware of that even
runs on Linux, probably because they inherited it, will very soon be
left behind unless they update it to take advantage of qt5. Knowing
Microsoft's overall attitude toward Linux, my guess is that they
specifically want it to stop being the notable exception to their own rule.

Of course the other problem is that qt-at-spi is just not one of those
"essential" packages for which distros need to maintain 32-bit versions
in their 64-bit repositories, specifically because it is deprecated, and
because there is only one application, Microsoft Skype, which requires
it, because it is nearly the only application that runs on multiple
operating systems, but is still not properly built for 64-bit machines
in 2015. Most packagers are not about to maintain a library package
version for a single application, nor should they be expected to do so.
Even more to the point, most packagers aren't going to maintain a 32-bit
compatibility version of a deprecated library on 64-bit machines whose
presence only affects a very small number of users of one single
proprietary application whose developer refuses to update its build to
the latest architectures and libraries, nor should they be expected to
do so. On Arch, the packager simply didn't make the 32-bit compatibility
package, likely because he doesn't have access to the separate multilib
repository where it needs to be uploaded, and the demand, though vocal
in nature, is just not sufficiently high to hand off the package to
someone who does have such access. My guess is that packagers on other
distros have stopped maintaining the 32-bit compatibility build of
qt-at-spi, and may eventually stop maintaining qt-at-spi in general now,
because the demand for that specific library continues to decrease. If
this is indeed the case, it may begin to affect those of us who use
Mumble as well, but the Mumble developers are now in the process of
porting their client to qt5, and most of this port may already be
complete, as the git version depends on qt5 rather than qt4, so the next
release should see all the benefits of qt5.

Someone posted either here or somewhere else that there is a rather long
and involved work-around to make Microsoft Skype talk to Orca on a
64-bit machine, but at this point, the use of free and open alternatives
is a lot less involved and technical in nature. My recommendation would
be to use something based on SIP or XMPP to communicate, neither of
which involves attempting to relink system libraries or move files
around your system that are better left to developers and extreme power
users. I don't even touch files like the ones that I recall needed to be
moved or symlinked most of the time, so I definitely can't recommend
that most other users mess with them.

Some examples of SIP applications that work with Orca include Linphone,
currently broken on Arch, but likely working in Ubuntu and Fedora, and
SFLPhone, which is available from the Arch User Repository, so should be
available in Fedora, either from the official repositories or from
RPMFusion.
Sent from my sneakers
-- 
"Don't judge my disability until you are able to see my ability."
~Kyle: https://kyle.tk/
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