Your TechMailings reviewers have more than a few blind friends, including a few who are skilled programmers. One of their gripes about Windows is that, what with it being visual in nature, they need to go through all kinds of song and dance to get it to work right for them. And Windows hardware requirements go up, up, up every year, which might be fine if you have a lot of money, but the sad fact is that over 80 percent of all blind Americans are unemployed, and the stats are even worse in the rest of the world.

So Linux is becoming increasingly popular among blind computer users. At its heart, it's a text-based (Command Line Interface) operating system, so with a text-to-speech program it's perfectly suited for people who can't see a monitor. And with its light hardware requirements and generally free software, anyone -- blind or not -- can get a credible computer going for $200 or so with a little careful shopping, or even possibly for free if they know about any of the many charitable organizations that recycle "obsolete" corporate and/or yuppie-surplus computers.

And then comes the Linux rub: it's not real easy to learn and use. And behind that comes the obvious solution: a big, friendly online newsgroup full of experienced Linux users willing to help.

If you sign onto Blind Support you can expect a moderately high level of traffic, like a minimum of five posts on the average day. But they'll all be relevant and useful.

If you are, or know, a blind computer user or wannabe computer user, this is an essential mailing list, one to which you must subscribe, even if you only can get to it through your Braille 'N Speak until you get your first Linux PC set up and running.