Hi Tom, Well, Linux is definitely at the point that a blind user could technically adopt it as his or her only operating system. I generally use Ubuntu Linux 8.04 much more than Windows Vista or XP these days. Thanks to major accessibility improvements to the graphical Gnome desktop environment over the passed five years there is quite a growing number of Windows-like applications available to a blind Linux user such as: a MS Office clone called Open Office, a MS Outlook clone called Evolution, Mozilla Firefox 3.0, a notepad clone called gedit, a Winzip clone called File-Roller, etc. However, like a lot of blind Linux users I do keep a Windows computer on hand for a few apps that I can't either get for Linux or the Windows applications are just nicer to use. For example, Linux doesn't really currently offer a really good OCR package. There are a few OCR programs such as tesserad-ocr which works, but Openbook 8 blows it away in scanning clarity, with its scan and read features, etc. On a low budget PC something like Tesserad-ocr and a Linux compatible scanner will work. However, Openbook is certainly prefered if you have the money to spend for it. Since I already own a license for Openbook 8 I don't have any problems keeping a Windows work station around for scanning materials. Another application I use on Windows is Sony Soundforge 9. While there is a pretty decent sound editor for Linux, Audacity, it isn't Soundforge quality. As agame designer and musician I want the best and most accessible sound editing software possible. So that expensive software alone is one reason I keep Windows around rather than using a Linux alternative at this time. Finally, there is the issue of accessible gaming. Most of the new games coming out are Windows only such as the Kitchens Inc games, GMA Games, Shades of Doom, etc. That puts a Linux user in the position of trying to get wine, the Windows emulator, to run them, use avirtual machine, or keepp a Windows box around for gaming. That isn't to say gaming on Linux is non-existant. Most of the Adrift 4.0 games can be played with scare 3.9 and later. They are fairly accessible, and many Linux gaming hours have been spent playing The PK Girl and other Adrift games. Also there is a Linux port of fritz. Once you apt-get it from the Ubuntu update service you can play the inform interactive fiction games. So between scare and fritz that gives a Linux user several text adventures to play. The latest release of gnome-mud seams to be quite accessible and user friendly. You can play Diskworld, Alter Eon, Miriani, or any other mud using gnome-mud. Then, there is your web based games like Sryth. I've found it tricky to play using Firefox for Linux, but can be done. I haven't tried other games besides Sryth, but generally if they work with Firefox for Windows you can play them in Firefox for Linux too. As you might have read I am rewriting all of my games with a new multiplatform engine so I can enjoy them on a Mac, Linux, or Windows PC. I've come to relise that far too many developers are so dependant on Windows only technologies most don't even know how to break loose from it and take a wider view of the computing world. Microsoft, the evil empire, while not a monopoly per say, still holds a solid 80% of the software market. That is too bad, because for ablind user Mac OS and Linux are a much cheaper alternative. Since the screen readers come built into the operating systems that is $300 per year you could save instead of paying for a yearly SMA on your Windows screen reader. The office software I use, Open Office 2.4 for Linux, came pre-installed with Ubuntu 8. It can import and export Word and Excel files, and cost me nothing to own. That is sure better than paying $450 USD for MS Office 2007 Pro. That again is money I could spend on other things. Over the passed year after seeing how much money I was personally spending to keep my Windows computers operating, and getting stuck with lots of anti-piracy restrictions on top of it. Especially, when my motherboard failed, and Microsoft told me point blank to buy a new copy of Vista I said, "to heck with that crap." I legally paid for that software, but because Vista's anti-piracy software saw the new hardware installed it told me I was pirating it, and that wasn't true. In the end Microsoft believed their software instead of me. So for me using Linux is my choice to get away from all that corperate mentality that everyone has millions of bucks to blow, that the software has to come with lots of anti-piricy protection, and to top it of when Vista was first released it didn't even have a complete driver library and bugs up the rear. So I feel why pay x money when there is an os that has better stability, reasonable accessibility, and most of the programs I need are for free. In fact, this message was written in Evolution for Linux.
Tom Randoll Wrote: > Hey thanks for this Thomas, this ought to be handy as I am considering > setting up my spare box as a Linux machine. It would be interesting to > know if there are folks out there particularly blind ones who are just > running Linux. What I tend to find with the people that I know around > here who run it is that they tend to have a Linux system and a windows > system or two partitions on the same system. This is because they want > to run Linux when they can and they need to have windows to run a > specific application or do something that can't be done very well in > Linux. Now that I think of it I believe that you fall into that camp > yourself if memory serves. So what if anything do you find Windows to > be indispensable for? I have personally become so disgusted with > Microsoft's policies and lack of quality control that when the stuff I > have will no longer run I will probably be looking for a serious > alternative to Windows. > > Best regards, > > Tom --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
