open source accessibility software oppinion enquirey

[Aldo]

Hi,
On Thu, May 27, 2004 at 09:55:35AM +0100, Foster,Joanna wrote:
> to lower the software costs to these individuals.
Well the first thing to try to understand is, that people interested in
FREE (for freedom, not for gratis) software, is interested in it for
the consequences of that open character: closed-soft doesn't authorizes
development / implementations by volunteers, while open and free
software does.
So being interested in opensource only for the low price, is equal to
not understanding the fundements of free software and its long terms
goals.

> As far as I know the above
> software is not compatible with Linux. 
Of course and let me say that Jaws or whatever will never be compatible,
except if the developers see more and more blind people asking for it;
thats again one of the reasons why blind people interested in Gnu/Linux
are working for fully FREE and OpenSource software publishable under the
conditions of the Gnu/GPL general public license, see
http://www.gnu.org/ for more info about it.

> I was hoping that someone might be able to give me their opinions of open
> source alternatives - preferably compatible with Linux?
This is a mistake: opensource software is compatible with Gnu/Linux, it
is developped by volunteers of the OpenSource community, so the problem
is that there is less Opensource software ported under other OSes (for
W$ for example).
But the goal of being interested in FREE and Opensource soft, is to
study the difference in efficiency and security under an alternative
operating system to the proprietary Window$.
So my opinion is: if you go on holiday in Belgum, do drink and eat our
specialities, so if you want Free and Open software, do install
Gnu/Linux to have tons of it at your pc.

> What is out there and how do you rate it? 
Well, more than 4000 packages are on a Debian Gnu/Linux distribution,
that's the same for other Gnu/Linux distributions: they come with tons
of Free software, you only have to install it.
 
> It would be really helpful to get any advice. I look forward to hearing all
> your opinions shortly
If you can search for a LUG - local user group of Gnu/Linux in your
area, i advise to do so, and go for a discussion around this when they
organize the so called Install-Fest, or Linux copy Party's!!! no matter
how they call it!
  
Success!

Osvaldo La Rosa
CoModerator of the French-speaking Mailinglist CarrefourBLinuX
http://lists.freearchive.org/mailman/listinfo/carrefourblinux