Background

I am writing this blog to chronicle my experiences with installing and using the gnome desktop on various linux systems.

I have worked with several linux distros over the last few months and have seen some of the best implementations of gnome and also some of the worst.

I have been working (or more accurately playing) with fedora core since fc3, and have watched the gnome desktop evolve over the years. Recently I tried fedora 9 and what I found was the newest gnome desktop is quite robust and also accessible using the current orca screen reader. With a couple minor tweaks to enable system adminstration with orca, all was good. I could be quite content using this version of linux and the gnome desktop, but my son has told me about Ubuntu, and I had to try it as well.

The ubuntu story is also quite comfortable and accessible. The installation is fairly accessible (with the advent of ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Haron, the installation is outstandingly accessible). The applications are quite robust and easily updated to newer versions.
Now for the real challenge, though, I need a system on which I can install various pieces of software whichare not certified on either fedora or ubuntu. Enter enterprise linux: a more "stable" older distro based in large part on fedora core 6. It is not as easy to install as ubuntu nor is it as up-to-date as either ubuntu or fedora, but it should handle the software I need to install.

Enterprise linux (el5) uses a version of the gnome desktop that is several years old, and which does not include many of hte newer applications and accessibility fixes.