RH 5.2 (obviously). At 11:35 AM 12/5/01 -0500, you wrote: >May i suggest that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing? Case in point, >David, ... what, pray, is linux 5.2?? There's no such thing as far as I >know. > > > On Wed, 5 Dec 2001, David Poehlman wrote: > > > 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 > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > Blinux-list@redhat.com > > https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > > > >-- > > Janina Sajka, Director > Technology Research and Development > Governmental Relations Group > American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) > >Email: janina@afb.net Phone: (202) 408-8175 > >Chair, Accessibility SIG >Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF) >http://www.openebook.org > >Will electronic books surpass print books? Read our white paper, >Surpassing Gutenberg, at http://www.afb.org/ebook.asp > >Download a free sample Digital Talking Book edition of Martin Luther >King Jr's inspiring "I Have A Dream" speech at >http://www.afb.org/mlkweb.asp > >Learn how to make accessible software at >http://www.afb.org/accessapp.asp > > > >_______________________________________________ > >Blinux-list@redhat.com >https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list -- John G. Heim WiscINFO Customer Service Coordinator Division of Information Technology jheim@doit.wisc.edu 608-262-9887