A comment on Slashdot that concerns me

[kestrell]

I think comments like the one quoted from the article are a hoot. After
all, the main reason I am interested in learning linux is that I won't be
at the mercy of self-serving meglomaniacs trying to tell me my ONLY
options are the the soundcards and screenreading programs with thousand
dollar pricetags that they and ONLY they can sell me. Possibly the biggest
problem in putting together a system for someone who is visually impaired
is getting legitimate unbiased consumer information, and sadly, the
shouting contest as sales pitch does work on some people while learning to
disregard the disinformation. I went through this in the early nineties
when I wanted to put together my first Windows machine, and had to deal
with everyone from my Commission for the Blind agency, whose idea of
adaptive tech was what they read in the pretty  brochures they got sent,
to my blind friends who kept telling me a Windows system would never be
worth the trouble for a blind computer user. The blind computer user is
like every other computer user, stuck between big business tactics and the
basic laziness of most consumers who don't do their homework, and the
corporations know it. It's like a race: keep your mind on the goal and
ignore the extraneous noise. Also, keeping a box of salt --take 2 grains
with every hardware/software review you read--helps too.

Trying to keep a sense of outrage balanced with a sense of humor,

Yours,
kestrell



"...it is only with the heart that one can see rightly. 
What is essential is invisible to the eye." 

~Antoine de Saint-Exupery