[nfbcs] Sonar or Vinux

[John Heim via nfbcs]

What both sonar and vinux try to do is to install or enable all the 
fixes you have to do to make linux work for a blind person. Some of this 
stuff requires a great deal of knowledge of linux. For example, by 
default, the linux screen reader for the console does not work with 
serial speech synthesizers. So if you have a hardware speech synth that 
connects to the serial port, like a doubletalk, it won't work. You have 
to edit the kernel source code, comment out a line in a C  program, 
recompile the kernel and install it.

Actually, I am not entirely sure that either vinux or sonar come with a 
kernel patched for serial hardware synths. And I don't want to make it 
seem like linux is all that terrible for anybody with a reasonable 
understanding of computers. I mean, dealing with this kind of gotcha is 
exactly what we do for a living. That is sort of what being a computer 
nerd is. But even if you are fairly knowledgeable about Windows it is 
going to take some time to acquire the knowledge you need for linux. 
Sonar and vinux can help with that.

On 05/21/14 20:17, Jim Barbour via nfbcs wrote:
> I'm afraid I've never used sonar.  I've played with Vinux, which is
> ubuntu with various screen readers (yasr, SpeakUp, Orca) along with
> some documentation.
>
> John is probably much more able to talk about the differences than I.
>
> Jim
>
> On Wed, May 21, 2014 at 08:05:16PM -0500, David Andrews via nfbcs wrote:
>> Hi Jim et al:
>>
>> I have a Windows XP laptop that I am thinking of installing a Linux system
>> on, to play and learn a little.  What are advantages/disadvantages to Sonar
>> versus Vinux?
>>
>> Dave
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> nfbcs mailing list
>> nfbcs at nfbnet.org
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nfbcs:
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/jbar%40barcore.com
>>
> _______________________________________________
> nfbcs mailing list
> nfbcs at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nfbcs:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/jheim%40math.wisc.edu
>