Asahi Linux Accessibility

The rumour is only for the base Mac Pro getting 16 GB as standard. I would bet they stick with 8 for the mini to keep costs down. I'd love them to push it up to 16, but I think, for the average user, 8 is okay. I'd argue it's not enough to run VO smoothly but, as apple has often demonstrated, those who fall outside their ideal user demographic, can get left behind.

I do like the idea of the new mini though, small enough to toss in a bag. Now, if only I could put windows on it.

Well we do have 16gb. Now I'm installing asahi now. I selected the econd option in the wizard, fedore with gnome. I also might also redo the installation and have the tty only... The issue I have now is that I'm unable to boot the os and as far as I know I did everything correctly too. Will investigate.

I really wanted to make it work but it's not general enough to use with any distro, only their modified Fedora. No Debian, for instance, AFAICS. And it takes a while to catch up to the latest HW in any case. That's the difference, in practice, between open and proprietary hardware.

If you just want to run Linux, use Apple's hypervisor to run it under UTM. That's how I run my server stack. With memory ballooning, honestly it's as good as it's ever going to get: the VM never consumes memory needlessly and gives back to the host when it can. Tell the VM to use all available performance cores, and the E-cores will handle the background priority stuff from the host. It's fine. Would be better if the VM could benefit from the host scheduler, but whatever.

For creating Linux server virtual machines, I recommend using Orbstack, which supports Apple VZ virtualization and x86_64 Rosetta emulation, offering significantly better performance compared to QEMU. The application interface is fully accessible with VoiceOver, and it also provides terminal commands. You can easily connect to the created server virtual machines via SSH. From the virtual machine, you can access the files of the computer on which it is running.

I could use a VM system that can run both Windows 11 and Debian Linux. A sighted friend is suggesting Synology. Neither of us know how accessible it is. So, for example, if I had to shut the system down and restart, what is the interface like for booting the two operating systems? Or is it just configured to start the operating systems as soon as Synology boots? Thanks for any help, and sorry if I'm going off topic.

Completely understand why you gave up. Even with Gnome it's disgusting now. I will install mate when I have time, and especially try to get speakup working in pure tty. At least I was able to install it which is quite simple.

But in its current state with gnome and wayland it's unusable at most.

So what is everyone using Linux distros for these days?

My Linux system is a home web server, with my home network router configured to allow HTTP traffic. I'm using Xfinity as my ISP, with a residential account, but I haven't looked at my service agreement closely enough to know if I'm violating any of its terms. If I am, the traffic is so low that I'm probably way under their radar. I also host an IRC chatroom, but it has gone dormant over the past few years.

I don't do much else with it. I don't even have the desktop installed. For system administration, I either shell in using Mac Terminal, or I use the Wordpress administrative backend from a Mac web browser.

I mentioned I'm considering a virtual machine setup. After several years of 24-hour service, my existing web server is ready for retirement. I also wouldn't mind having access to Windows 11. A virtual machine would let me do that with one brand new box instead of two.

I use Linux as my primary OS: Mate with stable Debian. Wayland is the issue with Gnome, and I've seen reports on the Orca List about Gnome working fine, if not better than Mate, with Xorg, if I remember correctly. Orca is in the middle of a complete overhaul over on the development and testing end of the versions, so I avoid any of that for the time being, even the Orca backports.
It takes a different mindset to use Linux, and many people wouldn't like it.

Yeah x with mate was good last time I tried it, didn't try gnome though. The thing is asahi are pro wayland, understandably I get some critiques of xorg but wayland ruined accessibility. I know debian mate works great on xorg, is that your setup?
If this is not a passive agressive to get a linux forum here I don't know what it is, macos shell naturally leads to linux. Just sayin :)
I know that chromium work with orca now which is awesome.
Please don't hesitate to dm, I'm very very very curious to have a linux desktop actually useful. If vm on the mac is the way for us to go currently I don't mind. Even emacs apparently has issues with wayland I think.
https://dudemanguy.github.io/blog/posts/2022-06-10-wayland-xorg/wayland-xorg.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1ed0j10/the_state_of_accessibility_is_worse_than_i/

Nice to see that Linux can be used by the blind as a main driver on the computer side of things. I remember reading last year a little bit about Fedora Workstation, I think I have that right, on its accessibility. Looks like it could be promising, but never delved any further than reading material. One thing I do know about Linux, is that you can typically buy laptops on the cheap, if you get one either without an operating system, or one with Linux preinstalled.
At least that's how things used to be ... 🤷🏽‍♂️

Oh, OK, I didn't realize Asahi was so limited or I would have stayed out of it. It probably isn't ripe yet. I do use Stable, Debian Mate, and came from Arch. I just prefer a stable OS, and once you figure out the tricks to smack Orca and speechdispatcher back into line there isn't all the troubles you read in complaints about Linux with a screenreader. Just a shortcut command here and there... Speaking of which, does the Safari not responding issue still linger?

Yep, still is. I only use old computers with Linux replacing the OS. The Bios and booting an installer can be an issue though. Mate reminds me a little of the Windows XP and 7 days.

way less worst since macos sonoma 14.2, but still there though quite tolerable now.