Diff — Slint Linux

{{infobox

| title = Slint

| base = Slackware

| type = Polyglot accessibility distribution

| developer = Didier Spaier, with blind testers

| status = Maintained

| screen_readers = Speakup (console) · Orca (desktop) · talking installer

}}

**Slint** is a Slackware-based, polyglot Linux distribution re-engineered from the ground up alongside blind testers — and it targets the barrier most "accessible" systems quietly ignore: **the installer**. If installing the OS requires eyesight, everything downstream is theoretical. Slint's installer talks — speech feedback throughout, and immediate **Braille output** the moment a refreshable Braille display is connected.[[cite: aiyumi.github.io — "Slint: a review"; slint-ng.org]]

Slint's other signature feature is mode fluidity: the user can switch between an accessible **console mode** (Speakup) and an accessible **graphical mode** (Orca) **without rebooting**. The console and the desktop are peers, not a ladder — which is exactly the bridge that mainstream transitions like [[Fedora 45]]'s KMSCON move leave unbuilt.[[cite: aiyumi.github.io Slint review; SourceForge slint project]]

- Fully talking installer — speech and refreshable Braille from the first prompt

- **Speakup** console mode ↔ **Orca** graphical mode, switchable live

- Slackware base — famously conservative, famously stable

- Polyglot: localized into many languages at install time

- Built *with* blind testers rather than tested on them afterward

Slint is the standing rebuttal to "accessibility can come later": a distribution where the blind user is the reference user, at every layer from the bootloader up. See [[The Hat Tips Both Ways]].

- [[Accessible-Coconut]] · [[Stormux]] · [[Slint Linux|Slint]] · [[Vojtux]] · [[Adriane Knoppix]] · [[Vinux]] · [[Sonar Linux|Sonar]]

- [[Fedora 45]] · [[Why Debian Is Still King]]

[[Category:Distributions]]

[[Category:Linux]]

[[Category:Accessibility]]