Vinux 3.2.1 is Released (GNU/Linux Distribution for the Visually Impaired)

GNU/Linux is all about variety and different choices. Thus if you have certain needs that you cannot acquire by using a certain distribution, unlike with the closed-source software where you're usually end-up with little margin for choices, with GNU/Linux you will find something else that's closely related to your interests. So no one is left behind :).

In that sense, if you haven't heard, Vinux is a GNU/Linux distribution based on the Ubuntu OS that's aimed for the visually impaired users. Although both Gnome and KDE do come with their own accessible software but if you want an entire operating system based on the needs of a visually impaired users point of view, then Vinux is an excellent distribution.

After the recent 3.2 release which brought a lot of new features such as ...

*. Based on the Ubuntu 11.04 "engine".

*. Came with the Pico TTS Voices (a text to speech engine implement by Google for the Android OS) addition to the Espeak (not bad but Pico is better).

*. Pre-installed proprietary codecs (some of them). 

*. Orca-Teacher (screen reader written in Qt for the KDE desktop) and  Talking Clock.

*. LibreOffice and Epiphany web browser.

*. New system bell when the booting screen appears so choosing different booting options is much easier... are just a few to mention.

Anyhow after few weeks of the 3.2 launch, the main developer behind the project, Dr.Bongo officially announced the availability of the version 3.2.1 which brings few features + main bug fix (including many others for sure)...

*. Now the PulseAudio server runs as in the "user mode" rather than the "system mode".

This was implemented because in the previous releases, where it used to run in system mode, there had been numerous reports of sound system crashing on several sound cards, not to mention the importance of having a stable sound system since it's for visually impaired users. So now it's fixed. But, because of this, to enable the audio "system wide" you'll have to run two scripts/commands.

*. Comes with a GUI for installing Vinux 3.2.1 into a USB drive easily called Zenity.

*. cdburn command-line tool for burning and checking CD/DVD (md5sum).

If you use the Vinux 3.2, then you can easily upgrade to this latest version by using the below commands.

wget http://www.vinux.org.uk/script/upgrade_script.tar.gz

tar -zxvf upgrade_script.tar.gz

sudo ./upgrade.sh

You can download the latest ISO images from this page. Unlike with many other GNU/Linux distributions, it is advised by the developer not to update the OS applications unless you really need them. Good luck.