Well, I did have the money, and decided not to get it. I'll tell you why, if you care ... The size is an annoyance, certainly, but I could have lived with that. What I can't live with is all the proprietary crap they put on the Elba, all those scripts and what not they put to get it look and act like a Windows machine. If I wanted Windows, I'd get Windows. I don't need a Linux machine that tries to act like a Windows machine. Another reason, their screen reader is proprietary. I want Speakup and Emacspeak, not their proprietary Linux screen reader that I've never played with and have no idea how it works. So, had I decided to get this unit, I would be blowing away all that stuff they put into it and doing my own Linux install. Heck, if I'm going to do that, I have lots of hardware to choose from. Saqib Shaikh writes: > From: "Saqib Shaikh" <sshaik at essex.ac.uk> > > Hi > > I talked to someone I know at Papenmeier UK. He very much likes the > machines, but there are a few reasons he thinks noone else likes them. > > 1. Size. We're talking 2.something kg, or 5 pounds. That's the weight of > a laptop. In fact you can get laptops weighing 1.2 kg. In terms of size > you're talking 12 inches by 8 inches, which is also not all that small. It > is also made of aluminium and is "built like a brick". This may be good in > terms of not breaking if you crash into a brick wall, but it has its > disadvantages too. > > 2. Inconsistency of Linux. I think they should have done more to adapt > Linux for the Elba. They maybe should have put a slightly nicer user > interface on the underlying apps. He mentioned, for example, that new users > never understood why they should press ctrl+g for help in Pico, but ? in > Pine. I don't use these programs so don't know. But in general it doesn't > have the polish of the Keysoft suite of applications. > > 3. Upgrading the system is a pain - you have to download the file, unzip it > onto a flash card, and then boot from the flash card. Problems are that you > need to buy both a flash card, as well as a flash card reader for the PC. > > 4. While a minor point, it boasts all this network functionality. But > since they only have 16MB to play with you can only copy files to your PC, > but not from your PC (or maybe it was the other way around). In any case, > it is only one way. > > So, I still think it is a nice machine, and I'd probably still get it if I > had the money, due to its open nature. Many people on this list may also go > for it. But at the end of the day it comes down to whether you want a > powerful tool that you can do a lot with, or a beautiful, elegant box which > takes inputs and produces neat, precise output. > > I'll be seeing a demo of it for myself in a weeks time, and I'll report my > findings. > > Saqib Shaikh > Email me at saqibshaikh.com > Web site www.saqibshaikh.com > > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup -- Janina Sajka, Director Technology Research and Development Governmental Relations Group American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) Email: janina at afb.net Phone: (202) 408-8175
