Introduction and question Linux

Sat Nov 25 14:26:58 UTC 2017

1. Is it possible?

Yes

2. Is the accessibility ok?

Under Windows and Mac but depending of how you use it, it could have some gains.

3. Is it correct that Ubuntu mate is the best system for us?

On Linux, there's no best, just the tool fit for you but yes Ubuntu
Mate is told to a bellow the average accessibility for a distribution
not focused on accessibility.

4. How do I make a usb stick to reboot my Mac with Linux?

You could burn the iso or use a tool like Etcher for the live usb but
I can't tell about the accessibility of it, not a mac user, for
booting it, I can't tell the process on Mac hardware.

5. When I restart after I am in Linux, does my Mac react normal again
after using Linux?

Depend, you should be able to test it as a live usb but if you try to
install after, you have load of things to have in mind, like having a
proper backup and the process on Mac hardware is probably a little bit
different.

2017-11-25 9:07 UTC−05:00, Linux for blind general discussion
<blinux-list at redhat.com>:
>> I would like to make the switch to Linux.
>>
>> My questions are:
>> 1. Is it possible?
>
> Yes! plenty of people do.  I've run Linux full-time as my desktop for
> about a 15 years, and a mix of Windows & Linux before that.  I've
> recently added some FreeBSD and OpenBSD into the mix for fun.
>
>> 2. Is the accessibility ok?
>
> There are plenty here who seem to think so (grin)
>
>> 3. Is it correct that Ubuntu mate is the best system for us?
>
> There are lots of flavors and it depends on your experience and
> likes.  Fortunately, if (as you describe later) you plan not to
> install but rather just run it off a USB drive, you can try out a
> bunch of flavors and see which suit you.
>
>> 4. How do I make a usb stick to reboot my Mac with Linux?
>
> I'm a command-line guy (there might be a GUI way on the Mac, but I'm
> unfamiliar with it), so you'd find the device-name of your USB drive
> with something like
>
>   gianni at my-mac$ dmesg | tail
>
> and compare the results before and after you insert the USB drive.
> With that device name (maybe something like "disk2").  A quick web
> search suggests you can also use the "diskutil" command:
>
>   gianni at my-mac$ diskutil list
>
> to find it.  If your Mac already mounted it, you'd have to unmount it
> with either
>
>   gianni at my-mac$ umount /dev/disk2
>
> (note, no "n" in "umount") or use `diskutil`
>
>   gianni at my-mac$ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2
>
> Alternatively, you might be able to use "Eject" in Finder to unmount
> it.
>
> Once you know the name and that the USB drive isn't attached, you'd
> take the disk-image you downloaded and write it to the drive with the
> "dd" command. You might also need to use `sudo` to gain root
> privileges:
>
>   gianni at my-mac$ sudo dd if=ubuntu_mate.img of=/dev/disk2 bs=1M
>
> Sudo should prompt you for your Mac password which you can then type.
> The "if" is short for "input file" and "of" is short for "output file"
> and the "bs" is for "block size" (which speeds things up if you
> read/write a megabyte at a time instead of reading/writing a single
> byte at a time; you can increase this to 2-4MB if you want, but I
> find that 1MB at a time is sufficient).
>
> I'm not sure of the magical Open Firmware command to boot a Mac from
> a USB drive.  Another quick web-search suggests holding down the
> Option key when you hear the boot-chime and releasing it once the
> boot-manager comes up.  I'm not sure how accessible the boot manager
> is, so you may or may not need some sighted assistance there.  It
> should be (at least visually) apparent which boot device is which,
> letting you choose the USB drive instead of your internal hard-drive.
>
>> 5. When I restart after I am in Linux, does my Mac react normal
>> again after using Linux?
>
> Yep, as long as you didn't perform an install, it should be fine.
>
> Another alternative would be using something like Virtual Box to kick
> the tires within the safe confines of a virtual machine where you
> won't impact your host Mac.
>
> -tim
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> If you run purely off the USB drive, it should reboot fine.
>
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-- 
Michaël Caron Couturier