Okay, first of all, it’s GNU/Linux, not “Linux.”

With a start like that, why even bother reading the rest (well unless you're into that)?

I'm so tired of those GNU FOSS elitists....

not sure they are the worst part of the FOSS community, but....

but I also think we don't push back hard enough against those and it shows in the general lack of "user friendly" documentation and troubleshooting.

Just noting that with a FOSS project, every feature or task or documentation or even dealing with contribution, has to have somebody's remaining time on the planet exchanged to do the work, usually for free and without thanks.

That's not excusing people getting burned / publicly humiliated. But... how is what you are doing here to the annoying commenter, any different to what you are raging against when it was done to you?

oh this is gonna be such a good one.

I wanna do a similar thing. I haven't had the pleasure of meeting a troll like the one you are replying to in such a long time. Last time was with an admin of a Linux Discord server called Linux For All that insisted that I am wrong about a codebase I work on and that runs some of my code (Mesa). I find them frustrating but also refreshing. It's just the stupid trolls, instead of the regular shit I deal with, like upstream maintainers, now.

I'm a bit sad that the software stack I usually touch on Linux, the graphics stack, isn't really, well, at all useful to blind folks. Best it can be useful for is GPGPU to run an img2txt model on images, and if that is all, I could strip it down so much it'd be much more reliable.

Also, I am working on an OS. I am trying to make accessibility a native feature, not an afterthought - the OS is data driven, and I am trying to make it so that everyone can use it the same, whatever input and output is available to them. All GUI programs able to natively hook up to a Braille display or a TTS engine instead that runs as a core system service. Because the GUI is not built by apps for GUI first, with accessibility tools having to hook into the GUI, but rather the GUI is placed at the same level as TTS engines and other stuff - as a user-interaction shell. That facilities user - computer communication.

Because as it turns out making it more accessible tends to also make it less painful to use for me too even if I am not blind etc. To be fair, I don't know if what I am making is gonna be accessible to blind people. I am trying to build something I would be able to use while having those disabilities, though. I want to actually test daily driving it like that (no screen) for some months. To make sure I am not just being delusional.

Because reading a lot of the accessibility stuff makes me feel like I should only work in accessibility tech if I am disabled in the ways the accessibility tech is meant to help with. And maybe that is true - maybe I should stop caring about whether disabled users would be able to use my OS. But I don't want to. One of my closest folks is blind. She won't use the OS, since it's not Unix, but... Yea...

And not like disabilities is something someone chooses or is determined at birth. I might get the exact same disability in an accident. No clue what life might bring. And I want my computers be ready in case that happens. Maybe I should focus on that instead of "virtue signaling".

What a turd they are. Looks like they didn't really read what you wrote, because it already shows you are working towards something better. Nice burn though.

Was that a comment on your blog? I'm not surprised if you removed it though.

>" I didn’t "just install Arch and whine about the terminal."

Years ago I tried a fork of a popular distro. I had a few things to fix, so I decided to compile it into a list and then post it to the help forums for that distro.I was accused of trolling, astroturfing, trying to make their distro look bad. They only got angrier when I tried to explain I found it easier to make a list and that I LIKED the distro. A lot of people in that community are socially maladjusted.

My first born is dyslexic. They have learned to compensate extremely well in terms of reading.

Shortly after their diagnosis I tried to get screen readers to work under Linux, debian based with the XFCE desktop.

All I wanted to do was click on a web page and get the computer to read the text so that first born could listen to the content on the web page so that they wouldn't have to read it.

I failed to achieve this. Or perhaps it was Linux that failed me this time?

"You never mentioned freedom"

And yet they never mentioned accessibility, which is the whole thing the series is about. They say you are whining that the system isn't shiny, when sometimes you can't even see the turd they're neglecting to polish.

That whole comment is cultish behaviour, what the hell. Hope those people leave you (and frankly, all of us) alone.

oh wow, what a not-nice person. :(

But great blog post!

Even though I'm not disabled (except with my autism) and even though I'm not even using Linux, I want to thank you for your years of hard work.

As someone who uses Windows, I definitely agree with you. Linux isn't built for people. I want to be able to use my computer without having to configure and set up every detail of my system. Some things - like the Desktop - have to "just work". Even though I don't have any Apple device, I like how their ecosystem works. It's easy. It's handy. It's "built for people".

I wish I could use Linux. Microsoft did have some bad decisions with Windows, but at the current time, it's easier for me to keep using Windows instead of having to deal with Linux.

I don't know how to end this reply, to be honest. I kinda just want to say thanks again.

“I am truly free (to use Linux) only when all human beings, men and women, (and enbies,) are equally free (to use Linux).”

— Bakunin, linuxised

@me

The ableism not just of dismissing your blind experience but also the constant "this is for smart people, if you don't like it you must be stupid" is so tiring.

And so dangerous: the idea that any kind of "freedom" could be only for those "smart" enough to deserve it, hmm where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, from fascist ideas like eugenics!

this sounds like a real bad case of survivor bias. In short paraphrasing "We have no tickets around accessibility issues because we don't have any users in need of this". 🤦‍♂️

Remeber "Build the bikelanes and cyclists will come"?
But the linux community goes: "there are no cyclists, so we don't need bike lanes"

The solution seems to be to build communities whose vibe seems more of a repellent to that kind of attitude.

The kingmaker question to that then becomes however, how do you build such a community that the likelihood of an elitist attitude goes down?

Reminds me of what I call the “Bad Old Days” of Linux. It’s only since 2020 that I switched completely.

For the 10 or so years prior, every time I tried to install or use nearly any Linux distro and needed help, I was met with a hand to the face from the RTFM crowd. Forums were full of gatekeepers and basement-dwelling neckbeards who mocked anyone who didn’t already know how to manually create disk partitions and compile their own software.

The asshole you're responding to isn't commenting on your post, he stopped reading at the title and is responding to that.

It gives me the fire to get out of bed every morning knowing that when I say "I work in a Linux shop" or "my laptop runs Linux" that I'm personally ruining the day of petulant man-children like this.

Fuckin' A! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

I've not used Linux as a daily driver desktop OS for nearly 15 years now. A lot of what turned me off is the GNU/Toxicity.

I still use it for servers, though.

Speaking as someone in their 50's, I have done my time with DOS prompts, config.sys et al back in the day.
I now have Linux Mint on two of my old Windows 10 laptops and it just works for me.
I have no great desire to jump too far into the weeds of it all.
To quote many an ageing action hero.

"I'm getting too old for this shit"

The concept of a "skill issue" and it's consequences have been a disaster for internet discourse.

This person clearly doesn't understand that you can't use your computer because of a physical disability, not because you are a "luser" or whatever. He's still stuck in the discourse of people complaining that Linux is too intellectually taxing.

My god. I couldn’t get past the GNU/Linux stuff so I gave up.

Then I decided to go back and skip that to start getting to the real stuff. Which was somehow worse.

I can’t help but thinking an extension that hides any comments on any site containing the characters “GNU/Linux” would just make the net a better place for everyone.

Just… wow.

I think that it's horrible that you got this reaction as a *nix user (BSD and Linux). Shitheads like that should be yeeted into the sun.

I don't like apple and Microsoft for a couple reasons (FOSS, monopolistic practices, Palestine/BDS compliance), but it doesn't matter if they're the only options that let you use your computer. And I'm not disparaging people who aren't as skilled with technology as me by any means because I'm not a jerk.

We really need more a11y on Linux for real.

I was cured of any interest in the Stallman viewpoint when I met him in person last century. Some excited nerds approached him to offer him something. They'd printed a Star Wars poster featuring the heroes of the story w heads replaced by Torvalds, Wall, Raymond, Stallman, etc.

Stallman refused to talk to them other than to complain that his head was on R2D2's body, like the droid was a useless character.

I forget the details, but I believe those guys grew up to become Windows ME.

Having now read the reply to the Reply-Guy, I'm honestly confused what they're on about. I just want them to do what they're supposed to. Having to dig into the system in order to fix something integral to its function?

Who's got time for this? Imagine a another system where you have to dig into internals when it fails to perform? Don't want to debug your microwave because the popcorn doesn't pop? Won't recompile the firmware that spins the turntable in the microwave? Lazy.

The whole accessibility and spying on you dichotomy compared to Linux is purely because these people have created that situation. Make Linux accessible and the false dichotomy disappears. In what alternate universe is accessibility predicated on user surveillance? No, it's ultimately because you're too lazy and lacking in broader understanding and empathy to get the bigger picture.

Idiots.

> You're not being excluded -- you're being challenged.

The idea that there is a hurdle someone should have to overcome, in any context, to be deemed worthy of freedom makes me sick to my stomach.

This user seems to acknowledge the fact that, at present, people with the ability to use Linux as a daily driver, with the ability to own their machine and do what they want with it without DRM etc etc., are few and far between, but rather than believing that everyone should have freedom and viewing that fact as a problem to be solved, they see it as a perk. Having jumped through all of the hoops to be able to use Linux, which most people justifiably refuse to and which some people physically cannot, makes them part of an elite club and gives them an excuse to feel smugly superior to Windows users, and that's the only part that matters to them.

People *should* be able to use free software with the same ease and same skill floor as proprietary software, actually. Foss bros can fuck all of the way off.