Journal: Why I don't use Linux

I believe that Linux is a good operating system in general. However, its shortcomings surpass its advantages regarding my computing needs. I am a severely visually impaired user who relies on assistive technology in order to make my computer usable. I use very powerful full-screen magnification tools combined with some speech to get work done. With that said, it is nearly impossible for me to set up my Linux systems without one-on-one help from someone who is a) experienced enough with Linux and b) someone who can see. To make matters more interesting, Gnopernicus, the magnifier for GNOME, can be incredibly buggy at times, and the setup process for full screen magnification is tedious and impossible to finish in an efficient manner without someone's help. The Composite magnifier which uses XGL features doesn't even work on various versions of Ubuntu; it only works with Ubuntu Edgy Eft Knot 3 (the beta version of Ubuntu 6.10). The bottom line here is that I just want to use my Linux system like other people can. Once I have magnification and decent speech that I can actually understand, I can efficiently use a Linux system...but until I reach that point, Linux is basically useless to me. I also want to note that accessibility teams, especially Ubuntu's accessibility team, is working extremely hard to fix these kinds of problems and are making efforts beyond any effort I could possibly make.