Greetings!
I agree with much of what others have written, but I guess I'll pipe up
a little.
I became interested in Linux (or GNU/Linux, as some insist on) for two
reasons, back in the late 1990's. Software freedom was the first. The
second was that it had real text terminals, which I was used to with
DOS. The first reason is vital to my thinking, and the second reason
remains very important, though I use the gui more than the command line
most days.
I was a programmer in those days, and I hope to do it again for pay some
day. One of my continuous and troubling tasks was to get the same
access to the mainframe computers I worked on as I'd had using DOS. It
never happened, though I can't say whether it has happened for somebody
else since then. I had to use JAWS during those last years of the job.
Although JAWS scripting helped somewhat, it seemed to me that (1) JAWS
needed more basic customizing to do what I needed and (2) this wasn't
nearly as important to the company as it was to me. I figured that if
JAWS had been free software, meaning free as in freedom rather than free
as in beer, one or more folks who knew more than I did could help me do
the customizing: the code would have been at hand.
My Linux journey has been long and often quite rocky. My ignorance
remains vast, partly because of my own inadequacies and partly because I
find documentation often sparse or hard to follow. Even so, I'm much
more able to fix things myself than I can with our Windows machines.
Yes, I use Windows most days, mostly because my wife doesn't want to
abandon it. (She likes the speech output better, and I agree. She also
doubts the wisdom of using software that few if any of the people she
shares documents with are using, a view I think is less warranted.) But
I dare to hope that if I can get her Voxin or something of the sort
working, maybe in time she'll be willing to drop Windows into the abyss.
My reasons are practical as well as principled, but I've written long
enough that I'll leave it at that.
Best!
Al
On 1/26/22 21:19, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
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.
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.
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.
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.
So, why do you use Linux?
what makes it worth the time the training and the trial / error?
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.
Karen
On Wed, 26 Jan 2022, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
Fair point.
As regards the keyboard, I agree with the main keyboard philosophy, and
in fact speakup does allow you to customize it to use the main
keyboard instead of the
keypad. However, it took me a while to customize it to my liking and
required quite a bit of study and generating of personal keymaps, so
might not be of any interest to those who aren't comfortable making
some low level modifications.
On Wed, Jan 26, 2022 at 08:16:08PM -0500, Linux for blind general
discussion wrote:
Which may illustrate my point.
I can use those without changing what I have now.
Speaking personally if Linux does not provide equal access to both
hardware
and software speech, in both its command line and graphical
platforms, I am
unsure just where the advantage is for me personally.
One thing I personally disliked with speakup, at least the times I
tried it
years back was the need to remove my hands from the keyboard for many
things.
That may not hold true all the way around, but I am a solid typist
and do
not like having to remove may hands, say use the number pad, if I
want as I
work content.
That is me though, which is one magical thing about personal computers.
everyone brings their desires and usage goals to their machines.
Which to my mind again personally means Linux should, if it actually
can, be
flexible enough for all choices to work in it command line and
graphical.
Karen
On Wed, 26 Jan 2022, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
I don't use Firefox. I use a text based browser, either lynx, w3m,
or links (the chain) depending.
On Wed, Jan 26, 2022 at 07:48:42PM -0500, Linux for blind general
discussion wrote:
Rudy,
As an example, may I ask what edition of Firefox you are running
with that
dectalk Express?
Karen
On Wed, 26 Jan 2022, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
Karen,
I use Linux speakup with a Dectalk express speech synthesizer.
And I believe speakup also handles the
slot card version of dectalk though you'll need a desktop PC that
supports it, so the software is there.
Rudy
On Wed, Jan 26, 2022 at 05:22:35PM -0500, Linux for blind general
discussion wrote:
Kyle,
i do not consider my hardware decktalk provided via my reading
edge to be an
example of text to speech.
By definition, and there are many, the term, which refers to taking
information in text format and rendering it aloud does not,
speaking
personally, equal pronunciation ease.
In fact one theory about this has to do with preserving the
audiobook
market.
granted, as was pointed out in a thread some time ago, I am not
likely to
learn about Linux screen readers, no driver exists for my
hardware speech,
and software synthesizer sources currently do a number on my
brain.
Karen
On Wed, 26 Jan 2022, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
That being said, the audiophile in me cannot resist pointing
out that
pronunciation abilities of tts are of far less quality than those
provided by many actual screen readers, at least the ones I have
used...which???? does not include any for Linux.
That being said, the technofile in me cannot resist pointing
out the
fact that every screen reader for every OS uses nothing but TTS
technology to read the screen. Well, I guess BeMyEyes doesn't,
but it's
not exactly a screen reader, unless you need the volunteer to
read a
screen for you.
~ Kyle
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Rudy Vener
Website: http://www.rudyvener.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RudySalt
The difference between truth and falsehood is that truth remains
constant no matter which political party holds the majority.
- A. R. Vener
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--
Rudy Vener
Website: http://www.rudyvener.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RudySalt
The difference between truth and falsehood is that truth remains
constant no matter which political party holds the majority.
- A. R. Vener
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