I am just in the process of uploading Vinux 1.5 Plus to the website. This is an experimental release exclusively for members of the Vinux Development Group, and will not be announced anywhere else. It contains lots of new experimental features which are bound to cause problems, so I would not advise anyone to try and use it as their primary OS! I would however like you to try it out and provide feedback on some of the new features. These include:
The Emacspeak complete audio desktop, which provides a text based interface in a terminal window or in console mode for advanced users. This can be launched from the Accessibility sub-menu or by pressing 'ctrl+shift+e' after stopping Orca and/or Speech-Dispatcher.
The LinuxSpeaks audio desktop, which also provides a simple menu driven text based interface in a terminal window or in console mode for beginners and intermediate users. This can be launched from the Accessibility sub-menu or by pressing 'ctrl+shift+l' after stopping Orca and/or Speech-Dispatcher.
Support for five more languages: Spanish, French. German, Dutch and Flemish. This can be started by typing a two letter code 'es', 'fr', 'de', 'nl' or 'fl' at the boot prompt. This will change the display language, but you will need to change the Orca voice and the keyboard layout manually for now.
I have installed Ubuntu Restricted Extras and some other non-free applications and codecs from the Medibuntu repository. This means that this version of Vinux will play MP3 files and encrypted DVD's out of the box, but be aware that this may contravene local patent/copyright laws in some countries. If this is the case then please do not download or redistribute it.
I have reinstalled all of the packages I removed from the original Ubuntu 8.10 in order to make room on the CD and I have installed all of the latest updates from Canonical as of today. Not all of these applications are accessible to someone using a screen-reader but they are accessible for someone using a screen-magnifier or high contrast themes.
I will post the URL when I have finished uploading it and tested the md5sum, which probably won't be until tomorrow afternoon. Please don't try to download this version until it I supply the URL as trying to download the temporary file might disrupt the upload.
Once again, this is a very experimental version which will probably have lots of bugs, but the feedback I get on some of these new features will help me to build the next version of Vinux which will in all probability be based on Debian.
