Category: Geeks r Us
Tonight, a fellow member here suggested that I switch over to Unix. I've been hearing about Unix and Linux foryears but never really looked into them. Well, I took a trip to Wikipedia and readup on both. Seems they're very old opperating systems and of course, they're still being developed. I also know that there are certain versions of Linux that use Speech and that my Macbook runs under Unix, even though it's got Leopard ontop of it and Terminal is fully accessible with Voiceover. The thing is I don'[t know anything about this os other than that it can be run under a command line. I'm not even sure if moern versions just have that there as an alternative with the gui being the main way things are done or not. What is it like in comparason to dos as far as interface and usage? How difficult is it to learn from that viewpoint? I mean, ware the terms readily understood? Can it handle most popular file types? Can I import files made with one os and use them in Unix? Is it really worth it for someone who's a casual user and just likes the command line interface but who isn't into heavy programming, computer science or maths to do this? I know that there are a few other commandline opperating systems out there but am not sure about their accessibility, except for Beos, which I hear we can't use and I have no idea about their learning curves.
I looked up Freedos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeDOS
and Enhansed DrDos
http://drdosprojects.de/index.cgi/about.htm
and it turns out both are still being developed. They both support modern file formats and 32-bit systems. Plus, they claim to be MSDos compatible. Other than the extensions, I can't see the commands differing from the Microsoft model as much as they would with Unix or Linux. But again, there's the issue of screenreader support. could something like JAWS for dos or Vocaleyes handle them? And what about the fact that Freedos has all sorts ofdifferent packages? that sounds a bit confusing and I could see positives and negatives there. Maybe, a screenreader could be made for it, perhaps even using a software synth likeeSpeak which is open-source and multiplatform. Has anyone here ever played with these opperating systems and are they even worth investigating or am I better sticking with the Microsoft version? Thanks a million.
Sort of what I posted on your topic on the Lynx Browser.
This was originally written for various distributions of UNIX, Linux being a flavor or category of such which has several variants of its own (Red Hat, Debian, Ubuntu, etc.)
And yes, if you want to use it in its command-line form, you need to do quite a bit of lifting, and no the commands are not what a standard user would call usable.
Command-line tools are there to get the job done without a lot of fluff, most of said fluff being the hand-holding most modern users need, and the convenient interfaces nearly all of us appreciate.
As a software developer, I have never hesitated to use command-line tools - either my own or those written by other vendors. However, those are typically for automation, doing a lot of file manipulation, mass compile, any number of things like that, but not browsing the net or doing email.
Your mac has an application called Terminal, which is basically the command-line window for their distribution of Linux. You can type man followed by any command from there to read up on it.
You'd have to use your screen-reader's review cursor to read the text in any kind of depth, and while manual pages are very thorough, they are not written at the lower grade levels that most modern help files are.
Linux is typically a great place to research a proof-of-concept situation where you're programming, but is designed largely for those in the maths and sciences.
Many web servers, server robots and other technologies that need a lot of processing power with little interference run on Linux systems
There's no comparison between Linux and DOS at all except they're both command-line.
Of course, most modern distributions come with a *relatively* easy install, not easy for a typical user but simpler than they used to be. And yes, you can get speech using ORCA or other solutions. These will come up with their desktop, a GUI that in some areas can pass pretty well for a basic user. They tend to do a lot better job of mounting all your drives, detecting most hardware, etc. All of this with a strictly command-line install must be done by you. I join Wildebrew and others in saying I wouldn't be able to help you much with the old stuff; it's been a really long time since I set up a command-only Linux box. Suffice it to say, you'll probably find yourself where we were ... then ... having to figure it all out with what documentation you can scrounge, and reading the manual pages. a "new user" of an OS such as Linux of any kind is far different than a "new user" of Windows or the Mac.
Okay, dos it is then. At least, I know where to find an excellent and easy-to-understand manual for the MS version and the rest I can probably learn on my own. I thought Linux was like that but didn'trealise just how tech savy you had to be to use it. I'll stick with Leopard on that one. I'll quit bugging you guys now... except if I need to ask a blind tech question like the synth and screenreader ones.
If you wanted to, you could always use ubuntu, that has both a graphical interface and a command line terminal. This way, if you need to, you can use the GUI applications or if you want to use the terminal, its all there for you. GRML is the same, though its more command line based.
Yeah, I've only used Ubuntu, and its so far, wso good. But Freedos hasn't been updated in the last 4 years, but I haven't checked until last year though. If you wanted to play around with Linux, you could also put it onto a CD and/or USB stick and boot it off of there like that. No installation, no screwing up anything either. You can, however, add Linux to a flash drive and/ or other portable media and make it portable, leaving all your personal settings and accounts with you where ever you go. Note: to boot from the live CD/usb stick, you will ahve to do it through the bios. I'm not sure what mac has, think its EFI? And putting Ubuntu on a USB stick can be kind of defficult and stuff, speaking of command line, you will have to do a lot of that in Ubuntu. Well some what to get a lot of your tasks achieved.
I'm steering clear of Unix and Linux. I've also been told by an expertin the system that it's very difficult to use for someone like me... he knows my tastes and comfort and frustration levels. Freedos was justupdated last month, though they haven't made a major release since 1.0 came out. I think you're thinking of Freedos-32. In any case, I can't find the full version of it to download, only a watered-down one and I haven't tried the link so might be dead as well.
You are correct about the mack.