This is mainly for Mike who asked. However it may give any of you a background
of where I am coming from and why.
I will try to be brief and to the point. that is not a strog point of mine.
My family moved to where we currently live back in 1994 I believe.
Shortly after that we got a desktop computer that had msdos 6.22 on it I
believe. Along with windows 3.11
Even then I didn't care for windows much. And I kept using the dos command line
for as much as I could.
To keep this part of the story brief. I installed several versions of dos on
that machine and others over the next few years. As well as installing and
reinstalling windows 3.11 and I think maybe windows 95 but not sure. I used
windows 3.11, 95, 98, xp, me, etc through the years. Screen readers JAWS,
window eyes, nvda, system access, and others.
Back to linux.
Dos was nice. But it was limiting. I wanted something else. Something that
would give me more power on the command line. So I began to search.
I honestly don't recall how I came upon linux. I know I started by reading
about unix. Maybe it was the dialup shell accounts and bbs's during those years
that pushed me in the direction of linux.
Once I realized there was a screen reader. I just decided to take the dive and
install it. Back then redhat, slackware and debian all had versions that you
could just install albeiit you had to enter a command usually at the boot
prompt.
Back then pc speakers were in most machines so you would usually hear a beep.
Sigh. I miss pc speakers.
I played around with many distros. Even those who some wouldn't touch like
linux from scratch. BTW, arch is basicly some say linux from scratch with a
package manager.
I don't recall how many times I installed linux from scratch. Maybe twenty or
more. I can't recall.
Any my linux adventures began in 95 or 96 or 97. I don't exactly remember. I
believe the kneral version when I got started was 2.2 or maybe 2.4
Back then you had to compile speakup into a new kernel if you wanted speech. A
task I really wasn't thrilled about for a number of reasons. Probably the same
reason I am hesitating to try to compile espeak-ng from source and see if it
fixes the problem I am having with espeakup on the raspbian OS.
Times changed. I was forced back into windows for a number of reasons. I
visited linux through the years. But I never stayed for very long. Mainly due
to hardware incompatibility issues. ETC.
When the iphone 3gs came out I got one. Through the years I have used almost
every iphone version. Staying on the smaller end in product size. I also have
went back and forth between iphone and android. But I am finally sticking with
iphone for a number of reasons.
About a year ago. I took an old computer and put arch linux on it. And it
worked quite well albeit the sound card was rather limiting.
About three months ago. I accidentally dumped water on that desktop and killed
it. I was so upset. I didn't have the money or credit to replace the thing. And
I didn't know what I was going to do.
I played with a chromebook that was sitting around here. I was hoping to put
linux on it and wipe chrome os completely. But the way people do it there was
no way for this particular model to be able for me to do that. So I was bummed
again.
The chromebook charger also wasn't working all the time and that concerned me.
So I began hunting for a cheap computer. Found one. In some ways I wish now I
had never bought the mini pc. But that having been said. It led me to the
raspberry PI and where I am today.
I have tried programming in linux several times. But back then I
1. didn't have a braille display
and 2.
Once I had one I couldn't get it to work with brltty.
This changed as soon as I got the orbit reader 20 about six months ago. So
maybe with the combination of speech and audio I can actually try programming
again.
Most of what I do in command line mode linux is email, browse the web and
mostly mud. IE Text games of adventure and the like.
When I talk technology to some of my friends. I sadly most of the time go way
over their heads. But honestly I am sure a lot of you know more than I do about
linux and especialy about the raspberry PI.
I am glad I enncourage some of you. But please remember I am liited in my
resources too. And I don't always have things right. And I get turned around
sometimes. ETC.
But that is my computer history in a nut shell basicly.
Sincerely,
Jessica
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Mike Ray, list creator, January 2013
