Zip Up: New Linux Distribution Speaks To Users

LinuxNews.com Editor writes, "A new talking distribution makes Linux easy for visually impaired users to install." An amazing hybrid of a compact Slackware distro and a Linux speech synthesizer, this is an effort that deserves kudos not only because it helps blind and visually impaired users, but because it sounds like it could teach the big boys a few things about appropriate user interfaces. As a bonus, it's small and can run on relatively low-end hardware (though it requires a compatible speech synthesizer), and doesn't even require repartioning.

Comments

Re:Has anyone really thought this through ?

[-brazil-]

The fallacy in your argument is that you assume one can really work with a computer using "plain English". Linux can't do that, and Microsoft can't do that either because computers are still a long way from being as intelligent as humans, which is what it takes to understand human speech. Pretending that this is not the case is pure Marketing, i.e. a lie.

Besides, whats so cryptic about usind "rm" instead of "remove" and "*" instead of "all". The Linux version is way more flexible about the "all" part (not that my example does not delete all files, just JPEG images!), and no-one prevents you from setting up "remove" as a alias for "rm" (which is used merely because it's quicker to type).

When a Windows program wants to offer the functionality of complicated (and yes, cryptic) Unix commands like "grep", it needs a screenful of menus, checkboxes and radiobuttons which is totally unusable for a blind person and still not as powerful as the Linux command.

Re:Has anyone really thought this through ?

[RyanShelswell]

You're assuming that anyone who's visually impaired is a "domestic user" and not a "hacker or nerd". I've taught comp. sci. students with pretty serious visual impairments, it's not necessarily a show-stopper.

RyanS

Re:Has anyone really thought this through ?

[-brazil-]

Without taking anything away from this effort, don't the visually impaired have enough problems without attempting to use the notoriously cryptic Linux operating system ?

No. For them, Linux is a much better operating system than Windows or Mac OS for one simple reason: under Linux, everything can be done through a text interface. How do you expect a blind person to use a graphical user interface? If it's text, it can simply be displayed on a Braille terminal.

I mean, it's a really cool tool for hackers and nerds, but for normal use

That's the keyword: normal. A blind person can simply not use a computer the same way everyone else can.