A couple of questions about the MeerKat: Do you have to plug in a mouse and/or monitor for it to work when it starts up? I had this experience on another Ubuntu system Can you get a built-in battery? I don't understand the point of a tiny device if you have to plug it in to use it. Amanda On 6/21/20, Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > My apology for not keeping the initial question in mind. > > However, I wonder if asking an Android phone to serve this function is > more an academic exercise than a practical one at this point? > > I say this because I'm just now in the process of buying my next > (natively) Linux computer, and it's quite small. It comes pretty close > to the size of an Android phone. So, I suspect it might be the easier > path of practicality is the point. > > I'm talking about the MeerKat 5 (small) from System76.com (which you can > get with up to a 10th generation Intel I7, 64Gb RAM, and 2Tb NVME > drive), all in a box about 4.5 inches by 4.5 inches by 1.5 inches tall. > The base price is very competitive with a new Android device, imo, with > far more going for it when portable Linux is the goal. > > Which is not to put down academic exercies aimed at hacking Android into > something usable. I just think the two questions are worth treating > separately. > > Best, > > Janina > > Linux for blind general discussion writes: >> I think Amanda is trying to get back to the question I originally posted. >> That is, she wants to set up a cell phone with a (mostly) FOSS Android >> variant, >> in order to have an accessible, extensible, and extremely portable >> computer >> that is under her (rather than Google's) control. >> >> Although she might use the Android UI for some tasks, the goal is to have >> a >> command-line interface and a set of blind-friendly commands that she can >> enter >> via Bluetooth, SSH, etc. Longer term, entering commands by braille or >> voice >> might allow her to dispense with a separate keyboard. >> >> As my posting indicated, there are several candidates for a base OS, but >> it's >> hard to tell which one(s) would be a good fit for this use case. >> Suggestions? >> >> - Rich Morin >> >> > On Jun 15, 2020, at 23:59, Linux for blind general discussion >> > <blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> > >> > I don't understand your question. An Android device is a Linux device. >> > It runs on linux kernels, implements several Linux libraries. Its audio >> > subsystem is driven by alsa. >> > >> > The user doesn't see this, of course, because all of that is under the >> > hood, so to speak. The user interface on Android is written in Java, so >> > bears no resemblance to the graphical desktop one might see on a >> > typical >> > Linux computer, typically GNOME or KDE. >> > >> > So, what are you asking? Please say more. >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Blinux-list mailing list >> Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx >> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > > -- > > Janina Sajka > > Linux Foundation Fellow > Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup: http://a11y.org > > The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) > Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures http://www.w3.org/wai/apa > > _______________________________________________ > Blinux-list mailing list > Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > > _______________________________________________ Blinux-list mailing list Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list