BlindHedgehogStew
New Member
I sincerely appologize for the long read coming up
(as our attention span collectively shortens into a #CokeMentosMoment
-
(Reader Discretion Advised):...
So this is literally my very first time in #penguin territory after 28 years on a platform of empty promises , uh, #Redmond , anyone?I have to first describe my somewhat unique situation before I can go into the specs of how I got here.
As per the situation, I'm totally blind since birth, so the most important piece of software is actually a piece of 'critical spyware' in the sense that it reads the code from various objects to 'draw' my desktop, then speak the contents in focus to me via speech.
That's what a #ScreenReader does.
In the Windows world, this would have been either #Narrator , #JawsForWindows , or #NVDA from #NVAccess .
On Windows since 2006 I've proudly used NVDA to traverse the increasingly evil Microsoft (now hardened) interface.
I'm more of a pro-sumer than consumer, so on Windows I used #reaper the digital audio workstation alongside an absolute beast of a freeware+open-source software synthesizer called #SurgeXT from the #SurgeSynthTeam !
And per proper hardware control I got the M-Audio Oxygen 61 MKV MIDI controller last Christmas (No, not the Wham song) to play DAW hosts live in realtime.
Per audio editing, #GoldWave was always my main squeeze - from the stupid little edits to extreme audio handling sessions
(my favorite audio passion of late (say, the past 4 or so years) is impulse response recording).
On a Dell Latitude 5500 acquired about 3 years ago from my brother's friend,
it's handled everything I can throw at it.
It initially came with 8 gb of RAM, but since updated to 32 gb to future-proof looking forward.
I had to retire the battery because when I first got the Latitude, the touch pad + a part of the keyboard were swollen.
So I've been on AC power per the past 3 years.
Now to the nightmare scenario which I quietly saw coming...
I should preface this by saying I Am One of Those that Does Want to See what's happening under the hood,
so just prior to Wednesday, February 25th,
just 3 days shy of #OperationEpicFury ,
I had an aggressively tweaked Windows session
(complete with only a local profile on Windows 11 Professional) and a heap of registry files + batch+command+PowerShell scripts to totally de-damn the junk, block telemetry addresses+ports,
unhide all 177 'hidden' UltimatePerformance power plan settings;
Even a customized PS1 prompt with my user name@host name; date;time:
Then my command input
followed by the output on the next line.
Had everything all set and ready to fly.
But, as is standard practice in the Windows world, I shut down just before going to bed
(almost wish I hadn't...), because:...
Thursday, February 26th, -
After powering the Dell just to check EMail,
I got an awkward message on my screen:
"No boot device detected"
I just 'quiet'ly 'splash'ed it off, knowing the switch was nigh.
Next week, around Friday March 6th, another friend of my brother introduces me to Linux Mint, but not a fully installed copy.
It was a 'live' image that I somehow could not install a full copy of Mint to my SSD
(quintessentially stateless computing at its peak).
I somehow survived with that for 9 days till a bad #Florida #Thunderstorm took my power away!
Now that Mint was gone, it twas time to see the evil 'snap philosophy' of 'humanity towards others'.
While Ubuntu Noble Numbat was kinda cool,
#Orca the #ScreenReader had a very difficult time with it,
considering the Wayland experience + non-native snap apps throughout the interface!
Twas about 3 weeks ago I'd finally had enough...
I remembered people talking about the no-nonsense nature of the Mate desktop,
so off to #Gemini I go to talk;
He helped me prepare a 16-gb GigaStone USB flash drive - to go from being 'inhumane towards others' to 'from freedom came elegance'
(complete with #Wilma (Mint 22 LTS)!
He (Gemini) directed me as to how to fully format and nuke the Ubuntu image once and for all!
Then, burn the Mint+Mate image to the GigaStone!
The #GigaStone is now officially a - #FlintStone !
And - after the successful installation of Linux Mint + Mate with 0 sighted assistance
(which is what the modern world silently endorseth),
all is well - and - yall just gotta new penguin in your corner!
(as our attention span collectively shortens into a #CokeMentosMoment
-
(Reader Discretion Advised):...
So this is literally my very first time in #penguin territory after 28 years on a platform of empty promises , uh, #Redmond , anyone?I have to first describe my somewhat unique situation before I can go into the specs of how I got here.
As per the situation, I'm totally blind since birth, so the most important piece of software is actually a piece of 'critical spyware' in the sense that it reads the code from various objects to 'draw' my desktop, then speak the contents in focus to me via speech.
That's what a #ScreenReader does.
In the Windows world, this would have been either #Narrator , #JawsForWindows , or #NVDA from #NVAccess .
On Windows since 2006 I've proudly used NVDA to traverse the increasingly evil Microsoft (now hardened) interface.
I'm more of a pro-sumer than consumer, so on Windows I used #reaper the digital audio workstation alongside an absolute beast of a freeware+open-source software synthesizer called #SurgeXT from the #SurgeSynthTeam !
And per proper hardware control I got the M-Audio Oxygen 61 MKV MIDI controller last Christmas (No, not the Wham song) to play DAW hosts live in realtime.
Per audio editing, #GoldWave was always my main squeeze - from the stupid little edits to extreme audio handling sessions
(my favorite audio passion of late (say, the past 4 or so years) is impulse response recording).
On a Dell Latitude 5500 acquired about 3 years ago from my brother's friend,
it's handled everything I can throw at it.
It initially came with 8 gb of RAM, but since updated to 32 gb to future-proof looking forward.
I had to retire the battery because when I first got the Latitude, the touch pad + a part of the keyboard were swollen.
So I've been on AC power per the past 3 years.
Now to the nightmare scenario which I quietly saw coming...
I should preface this by saying I Am One of Those that Does Want to See what's happening under the hood,
so just prior to Wednesday, February 25th,
just 3 days shy of #OperationEpicFury ,
I had an aggressively tweaked Windows session
(complete with only a local profile on Windows 11 Professional) and a heap of registry files + batch+command+PowerShell scripts to totally de-damn the junk, block telemetry addresses+ports,
unhide all 177 'hidden' UltimatePerformance power plan settings;
Even a customized PS1 prompt with my user name@host name; date;time:
Then my command input
followed by the output on the next line.
Had everything all set and ready to fly.
But, as is standard practice in the Windows world, I shut down just before going to bed
(almost wish I hadn't...), because:...
Thursday, February 26th, -
After powering the Dell just to check EMail,
I got an awkward message on my screen:
"No boot device detected"
I just 'quiet'ly 'splash'ed it off, knowing the switch was nigh.
Next week, around Friday March 6th, another friend of my brother introduces me to Linux Mint, but not a fully installed copy.
It was a 'live' image that I somehow could not install a full copy of Mint to my SSD
(quintessentially stateless computing at its peak).
I somehow survived with that for 9 days till a bad #Florida #Thunderstorm took my power away!
Now that Mint was gone, it twas time to see the evil 'snap philosophy' of 'humanity towards others'.
While Ubuntu Noble Numbat was kinda cool,
#Orca the #ScreenReader had a very difficult time with it,
considering the Wayland experience + non-native snap apps throughout the interface!
Twas about 3 weeks ago I'd finally had enough...
I remembered people talking about the no-nonsense nature of the Mate desktop,
so off to #Gemini I go to talk;
He helped me prepare a 16-gb GigaStone USB flash drive - to go from being 'inhumane towards others' to 'from freedom came elegance'
(complete with #Wilma (Mint 22 LTS)!
He (Gemini) directed me as to how to fully format and nuke the Ubuntu image once and for all!
Then, burn the Mint+Mate image to the GigaStone!
The #GigaStone is now officially a - #FlintStone !
And - after the successful installation of Linux Mint + Mate with 0 sighted assistance
(which is what the modern world silently endorseth),
all is well - and - yall just gotta new penguin in your corner!
