[Nfb-science] Accessing Python through Linux

[Dave Mehtinger]

Hi
Python is cross platform so there is a version that runs natively on windows. Unless you are going to be writing more advanced apps, like GUIs, I would think (hope) the code you write would run on either linux or windows and give the same results. 

If, however, you are certain you want a linux environment I would also recommend Cygwin if you do not want to leave the windows world. 

Personally I routinely work on and run linux and prefer it hands down over windows, especially for software development. But I don't use screen readers so cannot comment on that other to say that screen readers come standard with many distributions. Orca is one I tried out many years ago. If you decide to go the linux route, I'd recommend ubuntu as a distribution that is easy to install and use. I've run it on my home machines for nearly 10 years. Note that you do not need a new computer to run linux; it will happily run on the same machine as your windows distribution using a dual boot configuration. You can also run linux via various live cd distributions in which the operating system is contained on and boots from a cd/DVD. This does normally mean you cannot easily install packages that are not part of the distribution, although python comes standard with all linux distributions. Of course, if you want to save code files so they are persistent from one boot to another you should considering using a USB drive to save them to if you opt for the live cd route.