Okay then,
This illustrates another point which got touched on in a different
thread as well.
The, you must be prepared to do programming if you are going to use
Linux fluidly, if at all.
Very incorrect. I use Linux every day, exclusively ... I will use
absolutely nothing else on a full computer, and I'm even trying to get
Google out of my life, even on my phones, in as much as it is possible,
and I'm not really what you would call a programmer. I have built and
configured distributions, but that's really not so necessary these days,
as things just work out of the box. For example, I put Fedora Linux 34
MATE spin on a USB disk, clicked a few buttons, and wow it just started
installing, and then I was able to reboot, hit alt+f2, enter the word
"orca" and wouldn't you know, it just started speaking. Yes, there is a
bug where the alt+super+s shortcut is disabled by default in MATE, and
needs to be updated from the graphical desktop keyboard shortcuts
window, but that is easy as pie, although I admit I've been using Linux
since before there ever was such a thing as a talking graphical desktop,
and did have to learn a lot that looked quite a bit like DOS on steroids
in order to get it working initially. Still, the steps I have to go
through to get Linux on someone's computer that they can just sit down
at and get started working are much easier these days than ever before,
and far preferable to having to hand over my personal information to the
likes of Microsoft, Apple or Google just to even use my computer, or God
forbid, to have to tell someone else to give over their private personal
information in such a way.
On an entirely different list I am on, folks were complaining about
windows 10 and windows 11, because of the changes.
Computers are increasingly such critical parts of our lives, banking
shopping, even voting, that many on the list spoke of just wanting to
sit down at their computer and have things work...so they still use
older editions of things like Windows XP? and Windows 7.
Of course, which is another reason why I recommend Linux. Because the
more things change, the more they stay the same. I am perfectly able to
use something that looks, feels and acts very much like GNOME2 from
around 2008, and it all works quite reliably. Everything just works, and
i haven't had any serious problems where I couldn't just sit down at my
computer and just get things done in a simple, easy and productive way.
And these days, it becomes less and less necessary to even have to open
a terminal for anything at all, unless it's desired by the user. At the
same time, none of this terminal or text mode stuff has ever gone away.
In other operating systems, when things change beyond what we already
knew and got accustomed to, we have two options: either relearn the
whole thing or stay with the older less secure version. On Linux, if I
wanted to continue with the DOS on steroids experience, that could have
been my choice, since as much as things do evolve and change, the old
ways we all learned don't go away.
Just an example of what I mention above: I was on yucky Microsoft
Windows ME just over 20 years ago. Yes, it was very yucky ... very crash
prone, the blue screen of death hit me sometimes as many as 3 to 4 times
a day. But I could run something that looked and acted very much like a
DOS shell, which is what I was used to at that time, and type something
as simple as
move c:\test1.txt c:\tests
and the file would move. Imagine the horror I experienced when I got a
taste of XP, and although it didn't crash as often, the whole look and
feel of the system changed, and then I found that I no longer could move
a file in the same way I had done it for years. Now imagine my delight
when I stumbled across Linux, and found that not only was move still
there, and I could do it just the way I had done it all that time, but
now move became mv, and copy became cp, and I could even type tes <tab>
and get test1.txt if that file was the only one that started with tes.
That alone changed my life, although I did still want to learn the
desktop way of doing things, which eventually became much more
productive for even me. Now that I know the desktop way, if I want to
move every file except 3, I don't have to learn a whole complicated
command structure or regular expressions or any of that programming
stuff. Now I just open the folder I want to move from in one workspace,
open the folder where I want the files to be moved in the next workspace
over, then in the first workspace, hit control+a to select every file,
then hold down the control key and use the arrows to find each file I
want excluded, hitting space with the control key stil down to deselect
each file as I've navigated to it, then hit control+x to cut the files,
move to the next workspace and then paste the files that I just cut.
Yeah, it's a rather verbose set of instructions that looks daunting, but
it's much easier than it sounds when reading it. But the best part is
that I still can open up a terminal and mv to my heart's content if that
is what I would rather do. The way things are done has changed for those
who want to change, but for anyone who doesn't want to evolve their
methods of doing things that have worked for them for many years, it is
still possible to stay in the place that is most familiar. This is
exactly why I use MATE, since although GNOME keeps changing and
evolving, MATE, which is the continuation of GNOME 2.x, still remains a
viable option, and it is improving over time as well. The interface
isn't changing all that much, but the experience continues to improve.
I admit that is part of why the out of the box concept discussed here
where Access is concerned seems a bit, speaking personally, like a
misconception.
Where is the misconception? As I said, I just put in a mainstream Linux
distribution on my computer that I figured out how to boot from USB,
booted up the live image, which is a fully accessible desktop on its own
right out of the box, and immediately I could run my work website and
even my web phone on it. It took me just 10 minutes to get the system
fully installed to my internal hard disk, and the installed system was
just as easy to get up and talking, although it had the added benefit of
saving my cookies, at least for my web phone, so that I wouldn't even
have to login every time I booted up the computer in order to start
work. OK well, I did have a little problem, and still do, where plugging
in my call center style headphones switches the output from the computer
speakers to the headphones automatically, but I have to manually switch
the mic. But fixing this is easier even than logging into my web phone
and my job's website, and I have successfully transitioned to the
Advanced MATE Menu as made popular in Linux Mint, so I can just arrow up
a couple of times to the sound preferences, tab to the sound effects tab
that is open by default, arrow to the right to the input tab, tab over a
couple of times and then hit down arrow once to change the input from
the internal mics to the headset mic. Then I hit the escape key and I'm
right back on my browser again. The only other modification I made was
to change my audio mute key so that instead of muting the headphones, it
became a mute button for the mic, so that I could cough, sneeze, even
curse the person on the line, all muted if I needed to vent that badly,
and I generally keep the mic muted between calls in any case, unmuting
when I get a call. It is not a critical modification, it just helps me
be more productive on the job.
Few on the list I referenced above are using adaptive tools, and some
of them are scientists, with many not wanting configuring to be a part
of their computer lives.
Especially scientist types should be using Linux or something else,
anything at all, that would keep their personal information out of the
hands of the likes of Microsoft, Apple or Google. That's a matter of
privacy and security more than anything else, but it is just as
important. And they don't have to do any extensive configuration to get
things done here either. Only if they want to do programming would they
find it necessary, and those people would actually find programming more
enjoyable here on Linux than it is anywhere else, since the tools are
all freely available, and are included already on most Linux
distributions. And if not included, they are very easy to find and
install, as they are nearly all packaged everywhere.
So, why do you use Linux?
what makes it worth the time the training and the trial / error?
I think I covered all this above, but I'll sum it up with the fact that
I use it because it's more secure, it's free both as in speech and as in
beer, for me it just works and relearning is optional, and maybe I'm
just an oddball, but I find myself to be much more productive in this
environment that focuses on better productivity rather than change for
the sake of change itself. And as for the trial and error, I haven't
experienced that unless I wanted to dig deeper into the sysstem. Well,
my job told me they require a Chrome-based browser, but I find that even
Firefox works, and it's actually working better than using a
Chrome-based browser, even Brave, which tends to crash rather frequently
on my job's website, but is also a bit slower, so maybe that's the small
bit of trial and error of things. I also find myself more productive
with the introduction of workspaces nearly 15 years ago by my estimate
of my ability to use the desktop with speech, which just took those
virtual text console tty things to a whole new level of organization and
productivity. So for me, it's not about putting in more time than I had,
and it's not about trial and error. Rather it's about putting in some
initial time to learn new things when I have the time for them
initially, and then I'm good for years, and don't have to change unless
I specifically want to try something new. Believe it or not, the
concepts I have learned over time on Linux are not that different from
what Microsoft was forcing me to learn without allowing me to keep the
knowledge I already had. Linux simply allowed me to take that learning
of the same new concepts at my own pace, even if that took years, all
the while allowing me to do things as I had always done them, but making
it even easier to do those things. And then when I felt comfortable
moving forward with learning something new, Linux allowed me to keep
doing the same things in the same ways I had always done them while I
made that transition in my own time and at my own pace.
Oh, and is it your only operating system?
Want to ask the latter because I know someone who indeed uses Linux
exclusively, vowing never to touch windows again.
Please feel free to express in detail, never mind my personal
situation, because the journalist in me is interested as well.
Well, yes, and no. I use Linux exclusively on computers. Sure I did once
want to play with a BSD, and I did actually get around to trying
GhostBSD at one point, but a conflict arose where Orca was too new and
Python was too old, so the system didn't speak, and I never went back to
it. On the other hand, I do use more than just desktop and laptop
computers, as I use cell phones also. I did dabble in ChromeOS on those
Google Chromebook thingies, but I found that although they were Gentoo
at the back end, they hid it a bit too well, and I couldn't even get a
full desktop installed on one; it just wouldn't do anything but that
Chrome browser thing. You still can't read and write email in
Thunderbird for example, although now you can run FairEmail, which is a
fully accessible Android app. So Linux all the way for me on desktop,
laptop and single-board computers, which also could be called
minidesktops or microdesktops, and Android on phones, because touch
screens are a necessary evil that I hate with a passion, but the at-spi
devs must hate them even more than I do, since Orca doesn't work with
them because the at-spi a11y libraries don't work well with them. The
good news is that although some Google components are still required in
order to use the Android operating system, I have figured out how to get
full use of a phone rather easily without having to even create a Google
account or give them any of my personal information, so I am now working
toward divorcing Google even on my phones.
~Kyle
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