"Back in 2006, I wrote that the Free Software community
and disabled users must learn to communicate and invited Free
Software developers to do their part. Last week I interviewed Tony
Baechler, an active member of the Blinux mailing list, to check how
things are going in 2010, and to know more about a very interesting
project for Linux vision-impaired users he's trying to launch.
"Stop: Tony, how are you using Linux?
"Tony: I primarily use Linux in a server environment, but as
time goes on, I'm using it for more routine tasks. I almost always
use the shell as a matter of choice. I still use Windows for many
things like email. I prefer Debian but I've also looked at Ubuntu,
Slackware and FreeBSD.
"Stop: What are the Linux features you personally like the
most?
"Tony: Of course the cost and the fact that it's so much more
stable and faster than Windows. I don't have to plan on a daily
reboot! Another thing that drew me to Linux was the Speakup screen
reader. For the first time ever, Speakup allowed me to hear every
message on the console from boot to shutdown. That's impossible
with Windows because of its proprietary nature. If Windows is
having a bad day, your screen reader won't load and you have no
idea what's going on. In Linux, Speakup even reads kernel panics,
so I know exactly what went wrong. To me, that's real power!"
