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[Linux Experience Report as a Blind Person] I Want to Love Linux. It Doesn’t Love Me Back: Post 1 – Built for Control, But Not for People — fireborn (fireborn.mataroa.blog)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/linux@programming.dev
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[–] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Running ALSA as root had one huge benefit

Huh? ALSA is not a sound server, but a collection of kernel components and libraries. You don't run it.

With PipeWire or PulseAudio, audio is bound to a user session.

PipeWire has a system-wide mode of operation. It wasn't well-tested when I last asked about it, but it might be worth a try.

GTK3 broke accessibility for years.
GTK4 released with no accessibility support at all.

This whole article is focused on GNOME and other GTK-based desktops. The only mention of KDE Plasma at all is to say that a certain GNOME fork (MATE) isn't like it. This seems like a rather large oversight given that Qt, upon which Plasma is built, has accessibility features built in.

So, nearly every criticism here is not about Linux after all, but about a specific desktop family. I hope the author eventually notices that others exist, tries them, and discovers things that work better in them. (And it would be nice if they were to post a more comprehensive follow-up article, or at least rephrase this one so that it doesn't mislead people into thinking it represents the Linux desktop ecosystem as a whole.)

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    To be fair, most people who want to install Linux will google "how to install Linux" and most likely will be pointed at the main Ubuntu distro.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    All the more reason to call attention to an easily overlooked alternative, especially if it's able to serve a blind person's needs better.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Very true. Not a lot of outreach you can do on Lemmy, though. Still a pretty niche platform.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    idk, the linux comms here are more helpful than the reddit ones imo. The people are roughly as active, and less hostile.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    I agree, but what I mean is that Lemmy has a much smaller userbase. Most people don't even know about it.

    EDIT: Also, the smaller userbase may itself be a reason for the more welcoming community.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Tbftbf, that's not the correct way to do anything, you should always research before big purchases (like a laptop) or big changes (like an OS), even completely divorced from computing (like buying an anything).

    We need to bring back the concept of the "informed decision."

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I encourage you to try all of the OS out there, blindfolded, and report back on which were easiest to set up without looking. That would be very helpful content.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago

    >try all the OS out there

    >person you're responding to is suggesting they try the other one of the two top DEs for Linux desktop before leading with "Linux Is Already Broken Before You Even Start"

    This is a ridiculous strawman. I empathize with them and want to see accessibility improve (it's something I do in the project I work on even though you wouldn't conventionally expect that blind people can use it). If you're going to talk in such broad terms about the Linux desktop, not just your specific distro/DE, the onus is on you to at minimum try GNOME and KDE. Instead they chose GNOME and MATE, the latter of which is barely maintained and has effectively zero relevance outside of users who abandoned GNOME ages ago during GTK3 or people whose hardware makes the Atari 2600 look like a supercomputer (it looks like the former here). It's not 2017 anymore; Ubuntu with GNOME isn't some near-universal Linux desktop experience. I'm not telling them "nooooo just try my specific config for NixOS bro I promise Linux isn't that bad".

    This isn't even to say that KDE will be better; I don't know, which is why I wish they covered it. If KDE is also bad, then this is a stronger argument that Linux desktop contributors need more awareness of and focus on accessibility. If it's just mediocre, KDE devs can see it and learn how to improve. If it's good, then GNOME and MATE devs have a lesson in how they can improve.

    I don't expect anyone to exhaust every DE on every distro, but when the userbase is so firmly concentrated around GNOME and KDE, I expect you to at minimum include KDE (let alone if you include MATE). You don't have to, but I'm free to criticize your essay if you have such a massive hole in it. If you don't want to try KDE, literally just find+replace "Linux" to "GNOME/MATE" and solve the problem that way.

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