Computer users who are also blind have an interesting
take on this whole discussion.  Someone on this list touched on
the monolithic nature of GUI applications and Windows
applications in particular.  There in lies a real problem.  There
are several commercial programs that generally make Microsoft
Windows mostly talk or output Braille to special displays.  One
of the most expensive and good adaptive programs is called JAWS
which stands for Job Access With Speech.  It is very
sophisticated and works beautifully for some applications, fair,
for others and absolutely bombs on Windows applications that
weren't written to work with JAWS.  To me, that is unacceptable,
the fact that each application is its own little battle ground as
to whether or not it will work.  If I am going to spend the
$1,000 plus to add JAWS to Windows, I darn well want to know it's
going to work.

	With unix, however, the modular nature of things and the
fact that there is a sacred concept of standard input and output
means that access to non-GUI applications is almost guaranteed
without any software developer having to do much of anything.

	This, of course, is an over simplification.  Some CLI
applications are awkward to use with speech because they address
the screen nonsequencially so you hear everything, but it doesn't
make much sense.

	The neat thing is that you can work around things like
that if it is really important by writing filters to try to
distill the important nuggets out of all the ASCII graphics and
or boiler plate that may make you listen to a whole screen of
repetitive information when all you wanted was one thing such as,
"Is the interface up?"

	In the late nineties, I was getting pretty frustrated
since by then, DOS was fading in to obsolescence and unix was
only available for the most part on Suns and other rather
expensive platforms.

	I finally tried Linux in 2001 or so and haven't looked
back since.  My only use for DOS any more is to convert any old
P.C. with two serial ports in to a talking terminal, so to speak,
which connects to another serial port on a Linux box.  The
Linux box is what does all the fun stuff these days.

	There are groups working on speech and Braille access for
gnome, but any GUI presents some of the same problems Windows
does and only certain applications are presently usable this way
in gnome.

	Under Linux, I can program PIC's, burn CD's and listen to
streaming audio with mplayer as well as write programs in C and
play with expect and shell scripts to my heart's content.

	The frustration level is down significantly from what it
was about ten years ago.  My only real gripe with Windows
was echoed by another person on this list in that it has made
malfunctions almost normal.  There is kind of an attitude amongst
many that, "Oh!  that's just the way Windows is."

	In my paid job, I manage domain name servers, dhcp
servers and do tons of unix-based automation.  Our group does
lots of things in huge quantities and I am eternally grateful to
the unix brains out there who have made this job much more
productive than it might have been.

	I think it was Isaac Newton who made the remark about
standing on the shoulders of giants and that sums up my feelings
about unix.  It isn't perfect by any means, but it is constantly
evolving.

Martin McCormick WB5AGZ  Stillwater, OK 
Systems Engineer
OSU Information Technology Department Network Operations Group
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