[g-a-devel] Re: Gnopernicus on a Live CD?

[Luke Yelavich <linuxaccess themuso com>]

On Thu, Feb 17, 2005 at 11:47:40AM EST, thenerd rmisp net wrote:
> Hello.  I just tried your live Ubuntu CD briefly today on my laptop and I 
> have a suggestion.  I recommend that Java and the Java Access Bridge be 
> put on the CD.  I noticed that Open Office is on the CD, but when I tried 
> to run the word processor, I noticed that it wasn't accessible.  If this 
> CD came with an accessible version of Open Office with the Java Access 
> Bridge, blind people who are new to Linux could quickly try out Open 
> Office with Linux.

I would love to do this, but there are some sticky issues surrounding 
this at the moment I am affraid. This CD is essencially a derivitive of 
an Ubuntu live CD, which in itself is still in the testing phase. To get 
better Java support for apps, as well as OpenOffice would require a few 
things to be done:

* A Java VM would have to be included on the CD. Trivial, but not quite 
possible license wise. See below.
* OpenOffice would have to be rebuilt to include the Java accessibility, 
as it currently isn't.

The ubuntu project wants to ensure all the software it makes available 
as packages are free as in freedom. Unfortunately the Sun Java VM 
doesn't conform to a GPL like license. There are several other VMs and 
compilers out there, however they are not quite as powerful as the Sun 
VM yet.

The Ubuntu developers are actually in the process of working out what VM 
and compiler is best, and if it doesn't make it into the next release 
due in April, it will very likely be in the release after, due in 
October.

Then there is the necessary building and testing of things like the java 
access bridge and Open Office's accessibility support, which will very 
likely throw more problems into the mix. So unfortunately, it may be 
some time before this is fully resolved.

I would greatly love to include these packages, but I would like my work 
to be recognised by the Ubuntu developers and community. Including such 
non-free packages may put this in jepedy.

Luke