Why I choose Linux, was Re: NFB Net goes linux!

[Darrell Shandrow]

Hi Kenny,

As you said, your non-technical girlfriend is using the Gnome GUI.  That's
little different from using the Windows GUI.

You also said that you had a lot of time on your hands.  That probably
accounts for some of the differences in our perspective on life, and how we
like our computing environment.  I'm a busy sys admin; I work 40+ (usually
plus) hour weeks in a relatively stressful position doing at least systems
administration, sales and technical support.  I don't have a lot of extra
time these days to mess around with stuff...  :-)  Thus, on the client side,
I still use Windows.  Our computers here at home run Windows XP these days;
my system at work still runs Windows Millennium.  It does what I need it to
do, and sometimes better than the Linux equivalent would do the same thing;
this is especially true with browsing.  You'll not convince me, given the
current state of the art, that web browsing under Linux using a completely
text-based browser like Links or Lynx is nearly as straightforward as using
Internet Explorer with JAWS or Window-Eyes.  This is currently also the case
when it comes to working with your sighted colleagues, who tend to run
Windows and run the Microsoft Office applications such as Excel and Word.  I
need to be able to competently read and write these file formats, and as far
as I am aware, this is not currently practical under Linux.  Even if it were
doable by a blind person from the Linux console, it wouldn't be anything as
straightforward as simply running Excel or Word with JAWS.

Again, just my $0.02 on this subject.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kenny Hitt" <kennyhitt at knology.net>
To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Saturday, September 21, 2002 3:59 PM
Subject: Why I choose Linux, was Re: NFB Net goes linux!


> Hi.  I have a non technical girl friend who had no problem starting to
> use my system with gnome.  We've been together for a year.  She just
> found console apps more trouble than using a MS-Windows computer.
> Finally, I got X-windows working.
> I never had to ask her to read a screen until
> after I got gnome working. She likes the fact she can change everything
> on her desktop to look and act the way she wants.
> I install galeon for the default browser.  She loves it!  So far, she
> can do any thing on the web she wants.
> I still don't have access to the GUI, but that should change soon.  In
> the mean time, I can do everything I did with a MS-windows computer with
> console apps.  The only thing I don't have working is OCR.
> The thing I like about this setup is all the software to do this is
> free!  Sure, I spent a lot of time learning about a lot of things to get
> it set up, but I have lots of time.
>
>           Kenny
>
> On Sat, Sep 21, 2002 at 05:46:54PM -0400, David Poehlman wrote:
> > Ihave a non technical spous who loves the command line interface.
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Darrell Shandrow" <nu7i at azboss.net>
> > To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
> > Sent: Saturday, September 21, 2002 5:37 PM
> > Subject: Re: NFB Net goes linux!
> >
> >
> > Hi Ann,
> >
> > Keep in mind that Linux is actually not appropriate for most users,
> > especially the command-line interface.  Most people want their
> > technology to
> > be simple to operate.  They're not interested in how the computer works
> > or
> > anything of that sort.  They just want to use it to get work done!  For
> > those non-technical users, Linux is typically inappropriate at this
> > stage;
> > that is changing, but these are the facts at this time.  And, this is
> > coming
> > from a Linux sys admin with 2 Linux boxes at home and administrative
> > responsibility for numerous FreeBSD and Linux boxes at work.
> >
> > See, where I work, system admins also handle sales and technical
> > support, so
> > I am made aware of the non-technical nature of most people who use a
> >
> computer on a daily basis.
>
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