Re: [LAU] which lau distro is more commandline friendly?

Hi, Uh, actually, I'm of Japanese descent, but I'm Brazilian. Anyway... Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2015 08:18:01 +0100 (CET) From: "F. Silvain" <silvain(a)freeshell.de> I agree with F. Silvain. These pro audio distros mostly focus on graphical programs, which are generally not very accessible to screen readers, and thus aren't very friendly to visually impaired users. By contrast, on distros like Slackware and Arch Linux, if you only install the minimum packages to get a functional system, you only get the command line and no graphical programs at all (if you want some graphical programs, you'll have to install X). Then, you can install only what you want and build your custom system from there, just the way you want it, without being tied to Gnome or KDE or any other desktop environment you don't feel like using. For my graphical session, I currently use Fluxbox as my window manager," with keyboard shortcuts to my most used programs. For listing, accessing and copying files, I don't even use a file manager. I do everything from the terminal ("ls," "cd," "cp," etc.). I currently have Slackware on my general use machine. Even though I managed to get all my audio stuff to work (after much time and patience to write scripts and compile what wasn't available in the repositories), if I were to set up a new Linux box just for audio, I'd try Arch Linux since there are much more audio-related packages available in the Arch repositories than in Slackware's (including low latency kernels). There's also a talking installer for Arch Linux, specifically made for visually impaired users: http://talkingarch.tk/ Back to my setup... for audio, I use SoX[1] (command line) for batch-converting files, Audacity[2] (graphical) for editing (because it's very hard to cut/copy/paste/delete snippets of audio files from the command line, but Audacity's functions for dealing with multiple tracks aren't accessible to the screen reader, so I use Ecasound[3] (command line) for mixing. I use LinuxSampler[4] (command line) for playing virtual instruments in SFZ format, and Ecasound to record LinuxSampler's sound via the JACK ports (JACK is also run from the command line). I use two screen reader programs. Speakup[5] for the command line/non-graphical applications, and Orca[6] for the graphical ones. To run JACK along with a screen reader software, I have to use a second sound card, because the screen reader completely takes over the main sound card and JACK doesn't like this. I have a M-Audio FastTrack Pro (an USB external sound card), which I configured by adapting the instructions on the following link: http://joegiampaoli.blogspot.com/2011/06/m-audio-fast-track-pro-for-debian-… I couldn't find a MIDI editor that meets all my needs yet, and sometimes resort to a combination of Midish[7] and Midiedit[8] (both are command line programs), but I actually do most of my MIDI-editing from my hardware keyboard instrument. Speaking of which... Motif XF8 is the one I have (yes, and it was a bit hard to fit it into my small-ish apartment :P ). The accessibility isn't perfect, but the keyboard has a lot of knobs and buttons, and is fairly usable by visually impaired users. Here's an archive with various files by the guy that previously ran the MoAccess Mailing List[9] (a mailing list for visually impaired Motif users), with button layouts, accessibility notes, menu references, and some audio tutorials, for various keyboards from the Motif line (classic Motif, ES, XS, XF). The problem is that it's a big archive, and you can't choose specific files to download (you have to download everything): http://blog.bryansmart.com/2010/10/14/moaccess-archive-update/ And on the below link you can find text versions of manuals for various Yamaha keyboards, including the Motifs: http://www.yamaha.co.jp/manual/english/text/index.html I have the XF8. Transmitting MIDI data to/from Linux (either via USB or a MIDI cable) works fine. What doesn't work, is making the keyboard behave as an external sound card, because this function needs some firewire hardware that Linux doesn't support. If you want a keyboard that doubles as an audio interface/sound card, you might consider MOX8 or MOXF8 (the lower range keyboards from Yamaha's Motif line), which can perform the sound card function via USB, and work fine on Linux. Just my two cents, Aiyumi [1]: http://sox.sourceforge.net/ [2]: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ [3]: http://nosignal.fi/ecasound/ [4]: http://www.linuxsampler.org/ [5]: http://www.linux-speakup.org/ [6]: https://wiki.gnome.org/action/show/Projects/Orca?action=show&redirect=O… [7]: http://www.midish.org/ [8]: http://www.pjb.com.au/midi/midiedit.html [9]: http://www.freelists.org/list/moaccess