Re: [orca-list] slightly off topic: orca, espeakup and ubuntu 19.10

[Didier Spaier <didier slint fr>]

Hi Florian,

I will answer each of your questions after its quote.

Le 20/01/20 à 19:45, Florian Beijers via orca-list a écrit :

> - When I was last involved with Ubuntu, it was during the Gnome 3
> transition that made a lot of people ...not all that happy. I have
> been keeping my ear to the ground to some degree and heard that Ubuntu
> Mate is a good accessible option currently, so that is what i
> installed on a VM. Was that a good choice?

bluntly: Mate yes, Ubuntu you can find better.
Mate yes, because it's probably the most accessible desktop nowadays.
Instead of Unbuntu you'd probably could as well use Debian on which it
is based, which has a more soud releases cycle and which is at least as
accessible, with active contributors in this field like Samuel Thibaul,
cf. https://wiki.debian.org/accessibility

But in my biased opinion (biased because I am its maintainer) Slint is
even more accessible than Debian, at least out of the box.

> - Around the same time, people really didn't like PulseAudio all that
> much. Do they still not like PulseAudio all that much? :)

Many people do not like PulseAudio, for several bad reasons and one half
good.
Bad reasons:
- It was initially written by Lennart Poettering, whom they don't like.
- They heard bad thinks about it.
- They were used to something else.
- The system they use provides a defective configuration by default.
- Master it needs reading and learning, which they don't want to do.
Half good:
- PulseAudio is not adapted to some use cases, like for audiophiles.
I wrote half true because this is true but this inconvenience can be
mitigated by proper settings, allowing to make it coexist (and even
cooperate) with tools that better fit this bill like Jack. And if you
start it only on demand, it won't get in the way

The best document to learn about PulseAudio is "PulseAudio under the
hood" from Victor Gaydov. Link:
https://gavv.github.io/articles/pulseaudio-under-the-hood/

> - I have been trying to get Speakup in the console to work, but am
> running into a bit of an issue. The console speaks to me while logging
> in, but then falls silent. Do I need to give some process extra
> permissions?

It's hard to answer without more information about your installed
software and your settings. Indeed this shouldn't happen.

> - I am using Espeakup, I also hear a lot about speechd-up, is that the
> preferred choice these days? Any docs on how to set this up properly?
> :)

John already answered for speechd-up and Chrys for fenrir.

All three are installed by default in Slint as well as Mate, Orca and
associated software including many voices. Braille and speech are
enabled in Slint installer.

Links:
https://slint.fr
http://slackware.uk/slint/x86_64/slint-14.2.1/README.installation
http://slackware.uk/slint/x86_64/slint-14.2.1/doc/Accessibility/Accessibility
https://slint.fr/blog/welcome-to-the-new-slint-mailing-list.html

As it happens, I just uploaded an image that allows to try a mini Slint
without installing it, then complete it typing a few commands. All is
explained in this document:
http://slackware.uk/slint/x86_64/slint-14.2.1/minislint/README

Best regards,

Didier

PS:
@ John Covici: 'apulse firefox' works in Slint.