I have not been watching this thread but just tuned in and have some passages I want to respond to below with responses marked with dp: ----- Original Message ----- From: "John G. Heim (26 2-9887)" <jheim@doit.wisc.edu> To: <blinux-list@redhat.com> Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2001 11:14 AM Subject: Re: Hello! At 04:41 PM 12/3/01 -0500, you wrote: >install. >May I now simply suggest that you are wrong if for no other reason than >that I blind person will be very hard pressed to install Windows at all >without assistance? I'm not sure what I said that you think this disproves. My point is that it takes more knowledge to run a linux machine than a Windows machine. I never said windows can be installed without sighted assistance. The original questioner doesn't have a speech synthesizer so he can't install either linux or windows without sighted assistance. dp: it is possible to install windows without sighted assistance but you need to know how to do it. I am not certain that this is the case with linux but would wager that if the propper planning were done and the propper scripts available, it could be. About six months ago, I had a lightning strike at my home and lost the hard drive on both my Windows 95 and linux 5.2 machines. I bought 2 new hard drives and got Windows millenium and red hat 7.1 from the university. Since I don't have a synthesizer, I needed sighted assistance for both installs. The linux install took a lot longer and took much more technical knowledge. But that's okay. Of course it takes more knowledge to install linux than windows millenium. Linux is way more powerful than windows millenium. dp: I take it that you mean that linux out of the box is way more powerful than windows millennium or any windows system for that matter and I won't take issue with that. I would say though that again, with propper nknow how, you can do anything in windows that you can do in linux I am a windows user but a linux fan by the way so I am not bashing linux but want to keep the record streight. Windows is "easier" mailnly because doesn't do as much as linux. A good example of this point is file permissions. Can you even set file permissions in windows millenium? It doesn't really matter because you don't need them anyway. dp: you can set file permissions but not in the way you think of file permissions. you can tell windows that you want files to behave in certain ways such as be hidden, system or read only files if you know how to do it. If you're going to use linux, you probably need to learn about file permissions. How hard is that? Well, for some people it might be hard. Comparing apples to oranges? Yes! In fact, that's partly my point. Linux does bzillions of things windows doesn't. That's why it takes so much more knowledge to use. If you're going to use linux, you should be prepared to go through the process of acquiring that knowledge. Not everybody is going to want to do that. dp: I'd like a list of things that windows does not do that linux does. I can find a way to do them. Note too that my own example is rather esoteric. Most machines come with Windows pre-installed. Even if you replace the hard drive, you can usually boot from the old one, install windows on the new one, and then reboot from the new one -- all without sighted assistance. dp: none the less, I have started from an oss less hd and installed windows from scratch with little to no sighted assistance and no screen reader. -- John G. Heim WiscINFO Customer Service Coordinator Division of Information Technology jheim@doit.wisc.edu 608-262-9887 _______________________________________________ Blinux-list@redhat.com https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list