Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 07:04:40 +1100 From: jonathan michaels <jlm@caamora.com.au> To: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: about freeBSD Message-ID: <20030116070440.53982@caamora.com.au> In-Reply-To: <F133aZh5OUpFyZyvuQb00026f6f@hotmail.com>; from scott watson on Wed, Jan 15, 2003 at 12:19:30PM %2B0000 References: <F133aZh5OUpFyZyvuQb00026f6f@hotmail.com>
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On Wed, Jan 15, 2003 at 12:19:30PM +0000, scott watson wrote: > > i am choosing to use freeBSD for my school project and was wondering why i > should choose freeBSD over windows 95/98 also i am trying to make my PC for > a partially sighted person. what advantages does freeBSD have for that type > of person. i an mot blind, so i suppose i rate as partially sighted. i am a disabled man, i am in receipt of my countries "invalid pension" so i am unemployable. part of my disabilities realte to neurological damage that is now affecting my sight far more seriously than it once did. my credential. to answer your question, as asked, stay with a suitable microsoft windows environment for the required hardware platform, or if you can find a resale copy of ibm os/2 warp connect. this will have all teh stuff needed for tcp/ip and internetworking that will be required by most people short of systems developers, while providing a good and workable platform for the partially sighted, the blind and those with other incapacities, etc, etc. having said that ... freebsd, out of teh box, is all but user hostile to viretually any person wheo dose not have all but 100 percent controll of ll of tehier capacities/capabilities call it what you will. sadly on teh ocassions that i have tried to raise these issue the only thing more hostile that freebsd it self was teh reception by several people within teh "ruling clique" or the so called elite of the choock run. i have been looking at trying to make a workable environement for those with my kind of skills and physiological requirements and presidposition. i have been forced to use x11 to overlay the standard freebsd environemnt. sadly this mix of freebsd bloat, sorry progress, and the "gui tax" that is imposed by having to use a graphical environment such as x11 is making it harder and harder to use on that class of hardware that people such as myslef can afford and have the usage off when we sit down to work at our computers ... mainly 386/486 class processors with 8 or if lucky 16 mb of system dram and hard disks that are smaller than what most people use as system dram these days. getting back to the question, it is hard very hard to coax a usable environment out of the current freebsd/x11 mix because most of teh packages/tools/software is being built by people who have no awareness of what the basic ergonomic requirements of a well functioning physiologically intact person are ... then to take that and 'twist' it to somehow represent a package that is "suitable" for the "needs" of a person that has one defeceit ... two would be a nightmare of almost total exclusivity, in that you can have one, or the other but not both. i have been working very hard trying to read the documentation, all that is put out by the freebsd document project, untill recently i used a 12 inch vga monitor, suffice to say that it was actively enhancing the deterioration of my sight. a freind has recently given me a 21 inch paper white monitor (greyscale) and the difference is monumental, alsmost as much as the screen spce requirements on my already cramped desk, small inconviencences, fir the differences that it has made in my abilty to read. now all i need is a sony 21 inch colour screen and i can get to work being a graphic designer, its about the only thing that i can do thes days. i have a basic understanding of x11 and the mechanisms of teh freebsd display mechanism (virtual screen). so i am finding it tough going, to say teh least. to answer your question would require some more information, such as what sort of problems the person is having and what sort of daisplay hardware is being used, then the needs of teh environemnt would play a significant role in how you would have to tailor the freebsd/x11 mix. i may be a old fuddy dudy that still believes that it is not a mandatory requirement for an operating system to have a graphical shell, inspite of teh (in my opinion skewed) resutls from all of teh various studies and reports issued by the likes of microsoft and apple. this is a complex issue that would require some effort to resolve, sadly more than the glib answeres that have been offered in teh past in many of teh freebsd, et al, forum. there is no "simple" quick fix answer. but a lot of progress can be made by surveying the needs and setting some basic boundries along teh lines of teh available hardware, available budget and the skills (willingness to learn) of the individual concerned. in conclusion, shoving a gui platform on a 14 screen does not a suitable envoronment make ... depending on teh degree of 'sightedness' start with a good, ergo expensive, 21 inch screen. then, IF AND ONLY IF you have to and then as a LAST RESORT find a suitable go to as plain an x11 environment as is required to do teh job. sorry, for the lenght i could go on and on, this is a complex topic that has yet to be adequately discussed or documented in the freebsd users environment and or the documentation. if you wish to find more information go to www.w3.org and look up teh tags on teh welcome page to the "disabled" users sections, there are quite a few good sections on making www and therefore the desktop environment on the whole a much better place for all computer users not just us "part time vegies" (C) warm regards and best wishes jonathan surviver of 50 years with damaged brain, almost totally corrupted endocrine system, related neurolgical damage and significant musculoskeletal involvement as well - freebsd user since 2.0.5-release, still learning - slowly, one step, one day at a time). -- ================================================================ Jonathan Michaels <jon at caamora dot com dot au> PO Box 144, Rosebery, NSW 1445 <http://www caamora com au / ~> ==== === appropriate solution in an inappropriate world === ==== To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
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