Solaris 10 released, with accessibility built-in! Also FreeTTS 1.2 released. (fwd)

[Darrell Shandrow]

Hi David and all,

Is all of this inaccessibility in installation quite as big a deal as it is
being made?  Is it still possible to install Solaris through the serial
console port?  I did this a number of times as a sys admin using Solaris 6
and 7.  Does that ability remain possible with 10?



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "david poehlman" <david.poehlman at handsontechnologeyes.com>
To: "Linux for blind general discussion" <blinux-list at redhat.com>
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2005 10:39 AM
Subject: Re: Solaris 10 released,with accessibility built-in! Also FreeTTS
1.2 released. (fwd)


> The accessibility through remote may be from windows, but since windows is
> not serving it up except through special calls, we are actually using what
> is provided on the host.
>
> Johnnie Apple Seed
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Kenny Hitt" <kenny at hittsjunk.net>
> To: "Linux for blind general discussion" <blinux-list at redhat.com>
> Sent: Monday, February 28, 2005 12:21 PM
> Subject: Re: Solaris 10 released,with accessibility built-in! Also FreeTTS
> 1.2 released. (fwd)
>
>
> Hi.
>
> On Fri, Feb 25, 2005 at 11:55:15AM -0800, Peter Korn wrote:
> > Hi Michael,
> >
> > I am from Sun, so I don't qualify as the "non-Sun" person you are
seeking.
> > I also am sighted, so perhaps don't qualify as a sufficient authority by
> > that measure.  However, I may have some useful information, so I'll
chime
> > in...
> >
> >
> > The priority for our first release, as informed by the letter of the
rules
> > in Section 508, was a usable, accessible desktop for end-users.  This
> > specifically meant that for the first release, accessible installation
was
> > a "nice to have", not a "must have".  Solaris, unlike Linux, doesn't
have
> > a
> > notion of virtual text consoles in which you can run Speakup or BrlTTY.
> > You can run BrlTTY on Solaris (we have been shipping them on the Solaris
> > Companion CD for a little while now), but it doesn't run at as low a
level
> > in Solaris as they do in Linux.  See
> > http://blogs.sun.com/roller/search/richb?q=Companion&c= for a blog entry
> > from Rich Burridge on the contents of the Solaris Companion CD.
> >
> > GUI accessibility in Solaris 10 is very likely better than what most
folks
> > in the community have experienced.  This isn't because we've "held stuff
> > back", or "added secret sauce".  Rather it is becaus there are a *lot*
of
> > components to put together to make this all work, and we've been
building
> > and testing the particular collection of versions for a while now in
both
> > Solaris and our upcoming Java Desktop System release 3 for Linux.  Many
of
> > the problems folks have encountered are due in part to older, or
> > mis-matched versions of things. Web browsing in particular is
significant
> >  better using the Sun Mozilla branch (we've gotten about half of our
> > accessibility patches put back to Mozilla trunk, with more going in
every
> > week; but the most accessible Mozilla on UNIX remains our branch, which
is
> > what we ship in Solaris 10).
> >
>
> Are you still forced to read a web page line by line?  If so, anyone
> using speech for output  will take much longer than they would with
> lynx in a text console.  Even on pages that work well with Mozilla, I
> find it much faster to read the page with lynx.
>
> > So Solaris 10 is probably "beyond what is available in Linux" from the
> > point of view of what most people have put together in Linux.  But
> > strictly
> > speaking, *everything* we've done in Solaris 10 is "available" in
Linux -
> > you just have to do a bunch of work to put it together (and of course,
> > that
> > work is part of the value of going to a commercial, supported, UNIX
distro
> > and why many folks will pay Sun $50 for the retail edition of the Sun
Java
> > Desktop System).
> >
> > But... I wouldn't say that the shipping Solaris 10 is dramatically
beyond
> > what many have experienced on their own with Linux.  Perhaps others will
> > disagree - I've spent very little time trying to roll my own stuff on
top
> > of Debian or Fedora or what-have-you.  Even so, this is a *first*
release.
> > Compared to outSPOKEN 1.0, or JAWS 1.0, I think this is far superior,
and
> > far more functional.  And I personally know a number of folks who were
> > pretty successful with outSPOKEN 1.0 (and especially outSPOKEN 1.1).
And
> > certainly compared to the built-in GUI access options on Windows, there
is
> > no question as to how much more functional Solaris 10 is.  But we
> > certainly
> > have a good distance to go before we can rival JAWS 5.x, or ZoomText
8.x,
> > or...  And a user who is very comfortable and productive in the Linux
> > console will probably find they prefer that environment - at least for
> >  many/most things.  One blind user data-point to counter that: someone
on
> > one of the GNOME accessibility mailing lists said he has moved over to
> > Gnopernicus and Mozilla exclusively for web browsing now, and no longer
> > uses lynx.  As they say, your mileage may vary...
> >
> I agree Gnome accessibility is better than what I had in Windows 3.11
> and JFW 2.0 back in 1996.  I have switch to using Gnome for all my multi
> media playback.  Totem rocks!
>
> I find some types of file management are easier in nautilus than
> they would be using wild cards in a terminal.  I've also noticed I
> usually have few problems with accessibility when I try a new gtk 2 app.
> I have my system configured to boot to a gdm login and I always keep a
> Gnome session running in addition to text consoles.
> However, I still don't think it is possible for a blind person using
> speech output to be productive using only Gnome and Gnopernicus.
> I know that will eventually change, but it isn't there yet.
>
> You should be aware the person whoclames to be using Gnopernicus
> and Mozilla instead of Lynx spends very little time running Linux.
> Based on his mail headers and earlier posts from him, he spends
> most of his time in MS Windows.  I believe he uses Windows for his job,
> so his Linux experience  is only for short times on limited occasions.
>
> For accessibility purposes, I don't believe controlling a Linux box from
> a Windows counts as Linux experience.  True you know Unix commands, but
> the accessibility is still from Windows.
>
>
>           Kenny
>
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