Unpopularity of Elba

[Janina Sajka]

Well, I did have the money, and decided not to get it. I'll tell you
why, if you care ...

The size is an annoyance, certainly, but I could have lived with that.
What I can't live with is all the proprietary crap they put on the Elba,
all those scripts and what not they put to get it look and act like a
Windows machine. If I wanted Windows, I'd get Windows. I don't need a
Linux machine that tries to act like a Windows machine.

Another reason, their screen reader is proprietary. I want Speakup and
Emacspeak, not their proprietary Linux screen reader that I've never
played with and have no idea how it works.

So, had I decided to get this unit, I would be blowing away all that
stuff they put into it and doing my own Linux install. Heck, if I'm
going to do that, I have lots of hardware to choose from.


Saqib Shaikh writes:
> From: "Saqib Shaikh" <sshaik at essex.ac.uk>
> 
> Hi
> 
> I talked to someone I know at Papenmeier UK.  He very much likes the
> machines, but there are a few reasons he thinks noone else likes them.
> 
> 1.  Size.  We're talking 2.something kg, or 5 pounds.  That's the weight of
> a laptop.  In fact you can get laptops weighing 1.2 kg.  In terms of size
> you're talking 12 inches by 8 inches, which is also not all that small.  It
> is also made of aluminium and is "built like a brick".  This may be good in
> terms of not breaking if you crash into a brick wall, but it has its
> disadvantages too.
> 
> 2.  Inconsistency of Linux.  I think they should have done more to adapt
> Linux for the Elba.  They maybe should have put a slightly nicer user
> interface on the underlying apps.  He mentioned, for example, that new users
> never understood why they should press ctrl+g for help in Pico, but ? in
> Pine.  I don't use these programs so don't know.  But in general it doesn't
> have the polish of the Keysoft suite of applications.
> 
> 3.  Upgrading the system is a pain - you have to download the file, unzip it
> onto a flash card, and then boot from the flash card.  Problems are that you
> need to buy both a flash card, as well as a flash card reader for the PC.
> 
> 4.  While a minor point, it boasts all this network functionality.  But
> since they only have 16MB to play with you can only copy files to your PC,
> but not from your PC (or maybe it was the other way around).  In any case,
> it is only one way.
> 
> So, I still think it is a nice machine, and I'd probably still get it if I
> had the money, due to its open nature.  Many people on this list may also go
> for it.  But at the end of the day it comes down to whether you want a
> powerful tool that you can do a lot with, or a beautiful, elegant box which
> takes inputs and produces neat, precise output.
> 
> I'll be seeing a demo of it for myself in a weeks time, and I'll report my
> findings.
> 
> Saqib Shaikh
> Email me at saqibshaikh.com
> Web site www.saqibshaikh.com
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina at afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175