This is a fine post.
Speaking personally as someone who has tried, and failed to find a Linux
setup for myself, even while using what my shell services provided is
this.
Quality Speech, which I understand differs for everyone, but that speech
or choices for it, at the outset.
If you are new to Linux, also fighting your source of synthesis, and the
screen reader on top of that.. feeling appreciative of Linux at all gets
harder.
I would admit too that detailed conversations like this simply can
fortify, at least for some, how much Linux is a programmers game because
of all the tiny details involved.
When I still did adaptive technology work, I would first ask a customer
what the most want their computer to do for them.
then focusing on their feeling powerful about what matters then excited
about how they can grow.
Such was how I was introduced to a computer in 1988, with some skills
I learned back then still a part of my daily life.
Just thoughts,
Karen
On Wed, 13 Apr 2022, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
These debates can be both informative and useful for those new to linux
who haven't made their choices yet.
Unfortunately I would say probably not. Usually in situations like this, once
someone trying to make a choice to come to Linux or to stay where they are
sees all this get lost in a shell and hand-edit config file kind of stuff,
they usually run away before they get stuck in the quicksand. Or worse, they
end up tossing the virtual machine someone told them to try into the recycle
bin because it is just too hard to use. Of course this also applies when new
users are trying to find out what applications are available for this or that
and they are told of EMACS, Mutt, Vim and the finer points of what people
affectionately call "links the chain" and "lynx the cat" vs w3m with all
their quirks, or having to learn how to get startx to play nice so that they
can run a more capable browser like the Firefox, Google Chrome or Brave that
they are used to using, that is not only more comfortable, but is necessary
on today's web, when all they had to do was to run a live iso of a ready-made
distribution with a fairly modern desktop on it and they could be right at
home in minutes. If someone asks me about this Linux thing they heard about,
I like to tell them about what they can have up and running and feel fairly
comfortable using in about 30 minutes or less, and if they like that, great.
Then if they want to learn more about the power user stuff they can do, then
and only then would I even mention a terminal, a shell or terminal
applications. I probably still wouldn't say too much about EMACS or Mutt
other than their availability though, since even though I've been using
various Linux distros for almost 20 years, started of all things on
Slackware, and even ran a home web and email server fairly early on, even I
gave up on both of those because of the steep learning curve involved in just
getting past the initial setup process. Even now, even though I still have my
own mail and web servers, I still tend to use things like ISPConfig for my
server administration, since although the web server is very easy to set up,
deploying a mailbox on a virtual domain is still not for the faint of heart,
unless it has an automated script like what comes in most web-based control
panels that makes it much easier to set up. I mean if not for the craziness
involved in setting up a mail server with 3 or 4 mailboxes on 2 to 3 domains,
I would just run caddyserver for my websites, which can do a lot really
easily, and the caddyfile is very easy to understand and edit, although like
most other web servers, it doesn't support .htaccess, which does lots of per
site URL rewriting and custom error stuff that just isn't as easy to do on a
per-site basis in other ways supported by non-htaccess servers. Still in any
case, one point I really like to make is that although other operating
systems tend to take features away from users, Linux tends to add features to
desktop environments and applications, or just to add applications, all while
taking care not to take things away from power users, and even adds things
that make the power user experience better over time.
Sure I know this list is a general one, aimed at users of all levels and
skillsets. But being a more generalized list, it's probably better to keep
things on a more general level that while not excluding power users, won't
make new users turn tail and run for the window either. This is the beauty of
the GNU/Linux landscape as a whole. It's not the wilderness, and it's not a
barren wasteland either. It's a whole world with enough freedom and even
comfort for everyone. I found long ago that it is not the geeky OS that only
a server admin or someone with a masters in computer science could love, and
I do enjoy letting the world know that I use it and they can too.
~ Kyle
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