Re: programmingblind Digest V5 #85

  • From: Alex Midence <alex.midence@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2011 09:02:06 -0500

Hi, all,

Ok, I'm in digest mode, so please bear with me and see my response at
the bottom of this:

Don Marang wrote:
Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2011 04:50:44 -0500
From: Don Marang <donald.marang@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Virtual Vinux: Is It As Easy As This Page Says To Get Started?

The trick in that question is how would you like to run Vinux?  I think
the document you reference is the Vinux User documentation.  The site
where you ran into the document was originally for the virtual and USB
editions.  Vinux is much more flexible and easier to distribute than
Windows.  It is available as live (bootable) disks, Live USB Flash
drives and as preconfigured VMware Virtual Machines.  All of the Live
disks and USB Flash drives can install to hard disk as the sole OS or
dual boot.  There are both 32 bit and 64 bit distributions based on your
hardware.  The CD editions provide the lowest bandwidth needs to
download while the DVD editions have the most packages.
Our community through the preconfigured nature of these distributions,
integration of Access Technology, added packages, user documentation and
our friendly mailing list truely make Linux as easy as possible.  I
think you will be amazed!

Don Marang
Vinux Software Development Coordinator - vinux.org.uk

There is just so much stuff in the world that, to me, is devoid of any
real substance, value, and content that I just try to make sure that I
am working
on things that matter.
-- Dean Kamen


On 3/21/2011 2:02 PM, Homme, James wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> The question explains itself. This page makes me almost feel that I
> can get this working. http://vinuxvirtual.org.uk/getting-started-
>
> I have to be missing something. Is anyone willing to comment?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Jim
>
>
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------------------------------

I can attest to Don's assertions unreservedly.  As many of you may
know or can vouch for, I've been on this list since around May last
year when I began to learn c++.  From about 1997 to about August of
last year, I counted myself an exclusive Windows user with Jaws the
screen reader for the bulk of that time since I only discovered NVDA
in about July or something like that.  Anyway, I discovered Vinux in
late August of last year while I was frantically searching for an
accessibility friendly programming environment and also a place where
I might find more resources on e-learning and such.  I used to go from
IDE to IDE in Windows till I found something I liked sort of in
Code::blocks and wxdev c++.  Well, I ran across Vinux purely by chance
in google searches.  I was initialy worried about downloading because
I heard that it was rabidly LIbre/fsf based, a claim which proved to
be unfounded.  To make a long story short, I downlaoded the live DVD
one night in early September and burned it to a disc.  With baited
breath, I shut down my machine and turned it back on.  A few moments
later (about 1.3 the time it takes Windows to load up from my HD), I
heard Espeak say "Welcome to ORDCA!"  I discovered a most amazing
thing!  I had, in that one little disc, a complete office suite,
several browsers, an html editor, other text editors, some media apps
for music, videos and even pictures, a truly amazing host of utilities
and development tools, several compilers in several languages, and,
the true icing on the cake, three, count 'em, 3 screen readers all
mature, operational and completely and totally free!  It was
mind-blowing!  It saved me hundreds of dollars because I had just
started a college semester and the profs wanted everything in .docx
format.  I didn't have Office 2007 and didn't have the money to buy
it.  Open Office, which works horrifically with Jaws and poorly with
NVDA, came riding to my rescue and worked just amazingly well with
Gnome and Orca.  I still needed Windows for stuff so, in Mid Sept, I
decided I'd try and put Linux on my HD somehow and see about using it
in tandem with Windows as people kept saying they did, Don included.
Well, thanks to the very very friendly and oh, so non rtfm-minded list
of nice folks over there who answered my questions no matter how
stupid or newbie or clueless they may have seemed in a friendly and
non-demeaning manner, I got my Vinux virtual installed over a weekend.
 I started out with the pre-configured version which took about a half
hour or so to tweak.  And, I used that for a week ro so.  But, since I
wanted more power, I asked and asked and finally took the plunge and
created my very own, bright and shiny new vinux virtual edition out of
the live dvd iso I'd downloaded in about a couple of hours of
hamfisted hacking on my part (can do this in about 20 minutes now).  I
could've stayed with the Virtual Edition Mobene Iqbal created and
worked with it just fine for this whole time but I'm too curious and
too tinker-prone to leave things alone.  Mo's installation was easy to
use, configure and install.  It's a great place to start learning
Linux because, if something goes wrong, (I broke several installations
as I hamfistedly changed things I should've left alone), all you do is
just pop another file in place of the virtual machine you broke and
you don't even break a sweat.  Your hard drive is safe, your files are
safe, everything is hunky dory.  To make a long story short, I've had
nothing but good things come of my experiences with Vinux.  These
days, I've got my virtual machene set up with three accessible
environments, console (command line text-based environment), GUI
(x-windows with ORca screen reader) and Emacs using Emacspeak (Text
editor extended to full-fledged desktop system.)  I can program, write
text files, send e-mail, browse the web, listen to music, and so forth
for no cost whatsoever in money.  Best of all, I can run windows apps
at the same time as Linux ones and everything is in perfect harmony.
Lately, I use FSReader to read my c++ textbook in RFBD daisy format:

c++ how to program:  From problem analysis to Prgram Design by Deitel
This while I have Vinux going with Emacspeak as I type in source code,
an irssi session going in another console, fetchmail grabbing my
e-mails from gmail every couple of minutes, Firefox up with Orca in
Gnome for secure browsing, Jaws running in Windows along with EdSharp
since I still like to jot notes in it from time to time because it's
simple and quick to use, and a few other sundry utilities and services
running on a 2006 hp machine.  That, friends is power!  Oh yeah, Java
enthusiasts, Java swing, awt and swt apps are perfectly accessible in
Gnome.  Orca was written by a man who worked for Sun Microsystems up
until Oracle took over and fired him.  So, Java accessibility has been
there from the get go.  When I decide to learn Java, it'll be in LInux
so I can concentrate on the language and then, I'll move it to Windows
and wrestle with accessibility there.  The tool I'll use?  Eclipse.
Works just the same in Gnome with screen readers as it does in
Windows.  Win win situation.

Have a nice day all and sorry for the long post.
Alex M
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