Solaris 10 released, with accessibility (Hardware Specs)

[P. stanley]

Hello Friends,
         may I ask what hardware specs the new Sun Unix OS with all the 
accessibility features requires?
Many thanks,
Paul

At 19:55 25/02/2005, you 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...
>
> > Michael Malver writes:
> >>One of the things I like about speakup is the ability to install the os
> >>myself.  I am totally blind, and own a dectalk.  I know nothing of Solaris,
> >>but would be greatly indebted to anyone who could do a realistic evaluation
> >>of how "accessible" this is.  The press release looks great, but most 
> people
> >>I know who have used Linux say the x-windows access with screen reading
> >>isn't ready for common use.  Has sun created something in terms of screen
> >>reading beyond what is available in Linux??
> >>I'd love to install the os, but want a person who doesn't work for sun to
> >>evaluate the usefulness of the accessibility features from the perspective
> >>of a totally blind person.
> >>Michael
> >>p.s. I truly hope it doesn't appear I'm flaming the wonderful work on 
> access
> >>sun is doing. I'm simply concerned as to how usable this is before I invest
> >>limited time.
>
>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).
>
>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...
>
>
>Janina Sajka wrote:
>>I wonder if the new, "open," license of Solaris will now allow us to put
>>Speakup and/or Brltty into the Solaris kernel? That would certainly lead
>>the way to an accessible installation for blind users. As you point out,
>>Michael, that's a critical componant for community acceptance.
>
>This - or something like it - would be great!  High availability is one of 
>Solaris' key value propositions, so getting things into the kernel will 
>involve much discussion with the opensolaris team (though what you do with 
>your own build is of course up to you!).  I've cc-ed Rich Burridge, who 
>did the work to get BrlTTY onto the Solaris Companion CD, and who may have 
>insights into this issue.
>
>
>Regards,
>
>Peter Korn
>Sun Accessibility team
>
>P.S. please cc- me on this thread; I'm not on the mailing list.
>
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