Hi Devin,
Sorry for advertisment in advance, but:
> I would definitely recommend the Mac. You’ll still be able to run
free software, in an environment like > Unix. Optionally, if you use the
command line, check out https://github.com/tspivey/tdsr
<https://github.com/tspivey/tdsr>
Hypra machines do this too. And will always do.
> It isn’t as powerful as Fenrir or Speak, but it gets the job done
well. Also, the graphical utilities that come with the Mac, Safari,
Mail, text-edit, are great also. There is spell checking, autocorrect,
text replacement, and AppleScripting and Automation, all configurable,
throughout the system, not just in > your word processor, all accessible
with VoiceOver.
Hypra has Firefox, Thunderbird, pluma, Libreoffice, accessible all
right. And all the Debian catalog.
> Of course, there are current bugs. In Safari, you hear “insertion
point at (nil)” at the end of every paragraph unless you use the arrow
keys, and not VoiceOver navigation, to read. These bugs are usually
fixed within the year of a version release, and the releases are often
much better than the public beta versions.
> I seriously hope that Linux stays accessible, because I’d hate to see
free software let us down so majorly. But, volunteers are not held to a
standard of accessibility, so I will not be shocked if all we have left
in Linux is the command line.
What I mean here is not doiing free advertisment, but making you aware
of this: buy Mac, pay about 1000 euros or much more, learn yourself,
hope there are not regressions, use only Apple compatible accesories,
try reporting but Apple does not listen always (said one of their
community leader). Buy Hypra about 2000 euros, get an out-of-the-box
accessible Debian, a warranty it will stay accessible through updates,
free updates, persons you can talk to, in order to request for things
and getting support and training, fund the free software dev to avoid
such dark future as described on the thread. You can connect most
accessories (even Apple ones despite many complexities).
In other words, if you use free software, why changing it for Mac
whereas you can pay nearly the same for a full Linux accessible,
warranty and with human support? So far there were few warranties, hence
people going to typical computers, now there is, so free software
supporters should pay to fund this effort instead of paying for Apple,
whose effort is not the same after Jobs' death.
Regards
