I'm a Fedora MATE user here. Have been for several years, going from I
believe 34 all the way to the current 42. That said, there is a problem
with the installer on Fedora-MATE-Compiz 42, so you may have better luck
with Fedora Workstation or Fedora-MATE-Compiz 41, from which you can
update to 42 without any issues. I really like the MATE desktop
environment, personal preference, but some prefer the GNOME desktop that
is on the workstation installer. The thing I specifically like about
Fedora Linux is the installer, because instead of having to listen to
the whole menu and type in numbers, you just arrow and tab and enter
what you like, similar to the way most graphical applications work, and
for the most part, this installer works well with the Orca screen
reader, except the 42 MATE installer that I mentioned.
One thing you will find on most Linux desktops is that things pretty
much work as you expect them to work. For example, file management works
the way you would expect; select the file or files you want, shifted
arrows select files in the same row or column, control+arrows skip over
files you don't want to select, control+space selects a file if you
skipped over some to get to another, then you move the files with
control+x to cut or control+c to copy, and then paste them where you
want them. You can also delete multiple files without copying or moving
them anywhere, just with the delete key, open with the enter key, etc.
The good thing is that if you don't happen to like the layout or the
information you get, you can change it, or even change the file manager
if you want; its completely up to you. Of course reading email works as
expected, you can get a list of messages in the folder you are in,
reading the list with the arrow keys, or use the folder tree to go to a
new folder or mailbox, press the enter key to open the message you want
to read, then use either the arrow keys to read a message a line at a
time or Orca's SayAll key, the plus sign on the keypad, to read the
entire message at once.
There is a key difference however when looking at websites. Rather than
reading static page source into the screen reader's memory, thereby
losing much dynamic content, Orca actually presents the page using the
browser's view. For you, this means that if something on the page
changes, it won't get past Orca the same way it can get past non-Linux,
especially Windows screen readers, and pages actually load noticeably
faster as well. Still a bigger key difference comes with the amount of
structural navigation available in the Orca screen reader. Just an
example: h will take you to the next heading, shift+H takes you to the
previous heading, and alt+shift+h gives you a list of all the headings
on the page. This works the same for buttons, radio buttons, checkboxes,
links, unvisited links, visited links, clickable elements and others I
probably missed. Every key that navigates you to the next whatever, add
the shift key to take you to the previous one, or add the alt and shift
keys to give you a list of all the same type of element on the whole
page. This small but useful feature set makes Orca stand out as onee of
the most browser-friendly screen readers anywhere.
So most everything else pretty much works as you would expect, right
down to first letter menu navigation, using the tab/shift+tab keys to
change focus, using the arrow keys to navigate menus and other items,
pressing the enter key to open something or activate a button, space
also works for that, etc. It is largely a myth that Linux still has a
very steep learning curve. Although a learning curve does in fact exist,
Linux is far more graphical and user-friendly and much less terminal
dependent than it was even 10 years ago. The hardest thing you will need
to decide for yourself is which desktop you like the best, and which
other components you like the best, want to replace with something more
to your liking, etc.
I know I can get a bit long-winded at times, but I was trying to answer
all your questions at once, so I'm hoping I was able to do that
successfully for you. Do enjoy your journey in this new Linux desktop world.
~Kyle
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