I used to maintain a blind-friendly version of grml. It included a
kernel with the kernel patched to work with hardware speech synths, some
udev rules to recognize the synths and start speakup automatically, and
stuff like that. At one point, the grml developers switched the type of
compression they used on their ISO and I literally couldn't remaster
their ISO. Grml is based on debian but the compression algorythm (lzh?)
wasn't supported in the debian kernel. It wasn't just a flag in the
kernel, you had to patch some code, etc. Anyway, it would have been a
huge amount of work and I just didn't have the time. Boy, you should
have seen the angry email I got when I said I would get to upgrading my
fork when I had the time. Of course, the thing is, the angry emails only
made me less inclined to burn my own time helping the blind community.
On 09/23/2015 06:48 AM, Kelly Prescott wrote:
Ok, I now have the time to respond to this thread...
Echoing some of the things others have said, here I go!
1: I like Kyle am a vollenteer maintainer of the TalkingArch distribution.
2: I share his vision of keeping it is close to the original arch as
possible. We are not seeking to make another distribution, rather we
are seeking to make a distribution experience which is as close to the
original as possible.
3: I realize that this is not all things to all people. If this isn't
your distro of choice, I totally understand and there are several others
from which you can choose or you can make another one to match your
particular needs/desires.
4. Also like Kyle, I am always willing to help when I can.
I do better responding to the mailing list for 2 reasons. The first is
I want my answers archived so future users might find them should they
need them, and secondly I have a busy professional life which makes this
the easiest medium at present for me.
5. I am perfectly willing to help fix support issues particularly in
the braille side of things, and I have 2 displays at present, a Hims
Braille Edge 40 and a pacmate 40 cell display.
This does, limit my options, but I do what I can.
6: Mention was made of changing the serial detection of brltty in the
distro, and We might be able to do that, but I am reluctant to change
the packages I use as I don't want them to differ from the distributed
ones.
The only mods I make at present are to strip out some of the XWindows
and API stuff so it will be a smaller package for the ISO.
7: As we move forward, change is are bound to happen. Even the regular
Arch developers are struggling with the fact that the distro is going to
no longer fit on a CDRom.
We could strip out the braille support, but this would take out braille
as a installation option and the main stream arch iso will go over the
CD size probably by the end of the year anyway. We still offer the cd on
request as a option, so no one is left out.
8: as for developer motivation, mine works like this. I want a
blind-friendly command-line distribution I can use. I also want to help
other like-minded persons discover the command-line and learn Linux.
I am not trying to rid the world of Windows per say, but I do enjoy
seeing people learn more about the software and hardware they use.
I also enjoy seeing people switch to free software options.
It is all about choice!
I hope everyone has a wonderful day!
-- Kelly Prescott
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--
John Heim, jheim@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, skype:john.g.heim
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