Hi Mark,
This list is used for F123 Access, a Firefox and Chrome extension that
improves the accessibility of web pages. What you want is F123 Visual,
which is the operating system. Below I send you info on that list and
operating system:
If your questions are not answered with the information below, please
join our support list by sending a blank e-mail message to:
f123englis...@yahoogroups.com
We have two products, F123 Visual, an accessible operating system, and
F123 Access, software that improves the accessibility of web pages for
users of screen readers. If you are interested in the latter, please
write to the following e-mail address for more information:
F123A...@F123.org
If you are interested in F123 Visual, the accessible operating system,
but you would like this message in Spanish, please send a message to:
li...@F123.org
If you rather read this in Portuguese, please write to:
li...@F123.org
For English, simply continue reading...
* Introduction
Since this is a fairly technical list, some of you will remember F123
Visual because we supported improvements to the Compiz Fusion eZoom
plugin, to Orca, and the WebGTK library, and more. But others will
remember that we try to make life easier for those who are just
starting. This message tries to offer information that is relevant for
both beginners and more advanced users.
F123 Visual was based on Ubuntu in its previous versions, but now it is
based on ARCH and Manjaro, just like Sonar. We like Ubuntu and love
Vinux, but we wanted to have more recent versions of Orca available to
our non-technical users. We also prefer Gnome and Mate over Unity. We
cannot get into the merits of these decisions in a lengthy online debate
right now, this is just a quick explanation of the direction we have
taken. We respect and accept the decisions that others have made.
In practice, these are some of the things F123 Visual offers in terms of
default settings, commands, and options:
* Help Mode
Imagine this is the first time you try F123 Visual. You do not know how
to control the volume of the speech synthesizer, how to get a list of
applications, or anything else. With F123, the first time you turn it
on, you will get a help page opened through Firefox with all the most
basic questions answered. You will also get tips read to you every time
you open one of the core applications such as Firefox, Thunderbird,
Calc, Writer, or the text editor which in our case is Pluma (because of
the recent changes to Gedit spoiling the easy F10 access to the menu
bar. Next on the list, replacing Nautilus with Nemo or PCmanFM, but lets
not get distracted.
In any case, the help mode can be turned off by advanced users or
anybody who no longer needs the tips nor the Firefox Help file by
entering the following command on the Terminal:
deactivate-help
When lending the computer to someone who is just starting, just turn
help back on with, you guessed it:
activate-help
In the Spanish and Portuguese versions of F123 these commands have their
respective translations.
It is important to mention that help files in the English version will
be updated remotely in the following few days, as they are still
unfinished. This will not be an issue for advanced users, but it is
worth mentioning. The Spanish help files are more complete, but just as
with the Portuguese version, they will receive continuous remote updates
as time and resources allow. Many updates are based on questions and
suggestions received from users.
Finally, I should mention that F123 Visual is currently using Gnome
Shell, but we cannot wait to launch a version that uses Mate so that it
will work better with older computers.
* Keyboard Shortcuts
We have tried to follow the same commands as Vinux and Sonar whenever
possible to make everybody's life easier. Here are some examples:
CTRL+Escape = opens simplified menu.
Alt+F1 = opens full list of software by category
Orca left and right = voice rate
Orca up and down = voice pitch
CTRL+Super up and down = volume
CTRL+Alt E = opens Thunderbird
CTRL+Alt T = opens Terminal
CTRL+Alt O = restarts orca and speech-dispatcher, to be used when speech
stops suddenly.
CTRL+Alt P = opens pidgin
CTRL+Alt a = opens the help page just like help mode does.
CTRL+Alt f = opens firefox
CTRL+Alt G = Used to open Gedit, now opens Pluma, which has the
traditional Gedit interface.
CTRL+Alt H = opens home folder with Nautilus.
CTRL+Alt M = opens universal access settings which includes settings for
magnification.
Super+Alt M = activates magnifier just like in Sonar and others.
Super and minus or super and equals will increase or decrease magnification.
ctrl super M = mutes and unmutes
Super + M = Will minimize all windows and place you on desktop.
* Terminal Commands
Just like with the commands mentioned earlier, the folowing are also
available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, depending on which
version of F123 you download. These are simple but very useful:
search-file
This command will do a search for filenames that is recursive and
ignores capitalization, and will list matches. Command would be
search-file string, where string can be a single word or when quotes are
used, a sentence.
search-file-with
This will search also recursively and without regard for capitalization,
but will do the search inside files and list the names of those that
contain the search string.
The default version of orca on F123 will be the latest stable taken from
Manjaro and ARCH. However, we provide an easy command to switch from
stable to Master and back. To switch to the master version of Orca
simply enter:
experimental-orca
To go back to the stable version enter:
stable-orca
The same command is available for people to test the latest version of
LibreOffice whenever needed:
experimental-libreoffice
stable-libreoffice
Of course, the more complicated commands available in ARCH, Manjaro, and
Sonar remain available to you. The idea in F123 is to make things easier
for beginners, but anybody who wants to dive deeper can at any time with
commands like:
yaourt -S orca-git
Our intention here is to make it easier for beginners to use the latest
Orca, either because they desperately need one of its latest
improvements or simply to offer feedback to make it even better.
Then there are commands like virtualize which will grab the ISO you
specify and boot it in a virtual machine for you. Something nice for
both beginners and experienced users. This command is still not up, but
should be ready for you to use in the next couple of days.
We are of course open to including additional commands for the terminal.
Feel free to suggest your own. A full list will be available on our F123
help page eventually.
* Regarding Keyboard Shortcuts and Other Screen Readers
We have seen online requests for Orca to use the same commands as are
used by other screen readers, and even before such conversations we were
already considering making the transition between screen readers easier
by having different Orca defaults. After extensive research we came to
the following conclusions:
1, There are many actions that exist under NVDA but not on Orca, and
many that exist on Orca but not on NVDA, so many commands simply have no
equivalent;
2, There are a few actions that already use the same key combination;
3, There are some that cannot be modified because of operating system
considerations on Linux and/or Windows, and finally;
4, There are about 9 or more that make more sense the way they were
implemented on Orca and maybe 4 that make more sense as they are on NVDA.
In conclusion, it made no sense to create two sets of manuals and two
training courses, plus the multiple translations of each, just because
of about 8 keyboard commands give or take a few.
Our own thinking on this matter is that we can all start a conversation
with the NVDA folk, and over time, between 8 and 14 commands could
become equal between the two screen readers. This would benefit
everyone, it is just not as easy as simply remapping what is already
there today.
* Downloading F123 Visual
If you want to try out F123, you can download the 64-bit English version
of F123 here:
http://f123.c3sl.ufpr.br/F123-Visual-en_us-64bits.iso
If you want to verify the integrity of your download, simply add .md5 at
the end of the above URL and you will be able to download the MD5 signature.
Spanish 64-bit:
http://f123.c3sl.ufpr.br/F123-Visual-es_es-64bits.iso
Portuguese 64-bit:
http://f123.c3sl.ufpr.br/F123-Visual-pt_br-64bits.iso
* Trying F123 Visual without Installing It
Anyone who wishes to try F123 Visual without installing it as a
replacement for Windows, may use either virtualization software (such as
VirtualBox), to create a virtual machine with our ISO file, or the below
software to place the ISO file in a pendrive which must have at least
8Gb. Please note that to boot from this pendrive or a DVD created with
our ISO file, requires changing the boot sequence on the BIOS of your
machine. The advantage of using a pendrive is that it is much faster
than a DVD drive, and therefore an experience much closer to that which
you would have if you install F123 directly on your computer's hard disk.
The Windows-compatible software designed to move ISO files into bootable
pendrives is called UltraISO and can be found here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90112642/Ultra%20iso.rar
* Our Development Code
You can find the source code used to develop F123 here:
https://www.github.com/F123
We hope you will contribute to it. We also encourage everyone to help
with testing and/or coding for MaryTTS, eSpeak, Speech-Dispatcher, Orca,
Mate, LibreOffice, and good old Pidgin.
* F123 Services and Sustainability
F123 is a social enterprise dedicated to improving educational and
employment opportunities for the blind through superior and affordable
technologies, training, and technical support services. Should you or
any organization you know need assistance in making education or
employment more accessible to the blind, feel free to get in touch with
us. F123 Visual is particularly relevant to NGOs and schools because we
are able to update software and help files remotely and automatically,
keeping maintenance costs and complexity very low for end-users.
* Our Thanks
We want to especially thank Kyle Brouhard and Joanmarie Diggs for the
outstanding work they do to make computers accessible to the blind
around the world and for making projects such as F123 Visual possible.
We also want to thank everyone at ARCH, eSpeak, Gnome, LibreOffice,
Manjaro, MaryTTS, Mate, Mozilla, Sonar, and Vinux for the high quality
of their software. Finally, FOSS is only possible thanks to the
generosity and wise self-interest of millions of individuals around the
world, thank you all.
You may find a more complete thank you message and much more information
on our site at:
http://F123.org/en
* Our Lists
Any list discussing ARCH or Manjaro-based technology can also help with
F123 Visual issues, but if you have F123-specific questions or
suggestions, please use our lists. To sign-up, just send an email to the
following addresses according to your preferred language:
List for English speakers:
f123englis...@yahoogroups.com
Spanish speakers:
f123espano...@yahoogroups.com
Portuguese speakers:
f123portugu...@yahoogroups.com
The F123 Team
http://F123.org/