Why I can't recommend Arch or Gentoo

[John G Heim]

I used to maintain a blind-friendly version of grml. It included a 
kernel with the kernel patched to work with hardware speech synths, some 
udev rules to recognize the synths and start speakup automatically, and 
stuff like that. At one point, the grml developers switched the type of 
compression they used on their ISO and I literally couldn't remaster 
their ISO. Grml is based on debian but the compression algorythm (lzh?) 
wasn't supported in the debian kernel.  It wasn't just a flag in the 
kernel, you had to patch some code, etc. Anyway, it would have been a 
huge amount of work and I just didn't have the time. Boy, you should 
have seen the angry email I got when I said I would get to upgrading my 
fork when I had the time. Of course, the thing is, the angry emails only 
made me less inclined to burn my own time helping the blind community.



On 09/23/2015 06:48 AM, Kelly Prescott wrote:
> Ok, I now have the time to respond to this thread...
> Echoing some of the things others have said, here I go!
>
> 1:  I like Kyle am a vollenteer maintainer of the TalkingArch distribution.
>
> 2:  I share his vision of keeping it is close to the original arch as
> possible.  We are not seeking to make another distribution, rather we
> are seeking to make a distribution experience which is as close to the
> original as possible.
>
> 3:  I realize that this is not all things to all people.  If this isn't
> your distro of choice, I totally understand and there are several others
> from which you can choose or you can make another one to match your
> particular needs/desires.
>
> 4.  Also like Kyle, I am always willing to help when I can.
> I do better responding to the mailing list for 2 reasons.   The first is
> I want my answers archived so future users might find them should they
> need them, and secondly I have a busy professional life which makes this
> the easiest medium at present for me.
>
> 5.  I am perfectly willing to help fix support issues particularly in
> the braille side of things, and I have 2 displays at present, a Hims
> Braille Edge 40 and a pacmate 40 cell display.
> This does, limit my options, but I do what I can.
>
> 6:  Mention was made of changing the serial detection of brltty in the
> distro, and We might be able to do that, but I am reluctant to change
> the packages I use as I don't want them to differ from the distributed
> ones.
> The only mods I make at present are to strip out some of the XWindows
> and API stuff so it will be a smaller package for the ISO.
>
> 7:  As we move forward, change is are bound to happen.  Even the regular
> Arch developers are struggling with the fact that the distro is going to
> no longer fit on a CDRom.
> We could strip out the braille support, but this would take out braille
> as a installation option and the main stream arch iso will go over the
> CD size probably by the end of the year anyway. We still offer the cd on
> request as a option, so no one is left out.
>
> 8:  as for developer motivation, mine works like this.  I want a
> blind-friendly command-line distribution I can use.  I also want to help
> other like-minded persons discover the command-line and learn Linux.
> I am not trying to rid the world of Windows per say, but I do enjoy
> seeing people learn more about the software and hardware they use.
> I also enjoy seeing people switch to free software options.
> It is all about choice!
>
> I hope everyone has a wonderful day!
> -- Kelly Prescott
>
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-- 
John Heim, jheim at math.wisc.edu, skype:john.g.heim