From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from int-mx12.intmail.prod.int.phx2.redhat.com (int-mx12.intmail.prod.int.phx2.redhat.com [10.5.11.25]) by lists01.pubmisc.prod.ext.phx2.redhat.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id p0FEQxaX012181 for ; Sat, 15 Jan 2011 09:26:59 -0500 Received: from mx1.redhat.com (ext-mx04.extmail.prod.ext.phx2.redhat.com [10.5.110.8]) by int-mx12.intmail.prod.int.phx2.redhat.com (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id p0FEQsax001145 for ; Sat, 15 Jan 2011 09:26:54 -0500 Received: from ewr.djernes.net (ewr.djernes.net [97.107.141.189]) by mx1.redhat.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id p0FEQiW8005377 for ; Sat, 15 Jan 2011 09:26:44 -0500 Received: from data.home (unknown [109.65.185.172]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by ewr.djernes.net (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id AAA3114415C for ; Sat, 15 Jan 2011 14:26:42 +0000 (UTC) X-DKIM: Sendmail DKIM Filter v2.8.2 ewr.djernes.net AAA3114415C DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=simple/simple; d=quitelikely.com; s=2010; t=1295101603; bh=H5QfSSyaPJIuKJ1VcdLgUc3qXL5ts/+DvJHTRbW8No4=; h=Date:From:To:Subject:In-Reply-To:Message-ID:References: MIME-Version:Content-Type; b=rO1IAdRV9/YLvwruqn8YmPIN7KBVir5ismvSk8sZlU9bKa+9FQhaxftGnJkfQ1THe NJj2rfPUoRs8zYTrtBmGswkvWCW6N/6eo4P5toK4GIgbPuKc3I+MJ1R7TPaOYB4v0R b3WZENT6zo8sGuAHtcbDQdmz2ViN9uK55vUMGK2E= Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2011 16:26:40 +0200 (IST) From: Geoff Shang X-X-Sender: geoff@data.home To: Linux for blind general discussion Subject: Re: debian on a laptop? In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: <20110114070444.GA10605@football.tbsaunde.org> User-Agent: Alpine 2.00 (DEB 1167 2008-08-23) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed X-RedHat-Spam-Score: -0.1 (DKIM_SIGNED,DKIM_VALID,DKIM_VALID_AU) X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.68 on 10.5.11.25 X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.67 on 10.5.110.8 X-loop: blinux-list@redhat.com X-BeenThere: blinux-list@redhat.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.12 Precedence: junk Reply-To: Linux for blind general discussion List-Id: Linux for blind general discussion List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2011 14:26:59 -0000 On Fri, 14 Jan 2011, Karen Lewellen wrote: >> From my experience reading and the like, actually Janina told me this ages > back, it is a good idea to have someone at your end who is at least vaguely > familiar with Linux if devoting an entire machine to this for the first time. This is not so much the case as it used to be, particularly if it's not your only machine and you can use other means to get assistance from the net. > Just reading SOME of the commands one must type makes me dizzy sometimes lol. > I run both a production and a nonprofit, am a radio journalist and > professional singer. I do not mind tinkering in DOS, because I learned it > well when I had more time for learning. > I have far far less time to completely construct this system myself from the > ground up without someone used to and familiar with the speech aspects, and > the compiling requirements of Linux nearby to call. There is less and less need to compile anything these days, unless you have very special requirements. Certainly I have not done a kernel compilation in literally years. > I am not lazy, just honest. I would rather concentrate on learning how to run > what I must run, once constructed to make running easy if that makes sense, > read documentation with a framework of understanding that moves me forward. > I know what my talents are, and what they are not, or more how I can use my > time these days grin. I know where you're coming from. I don't have the luxury of being able to mess with things that I used to have. Fortunately, speech and Braille solutions are now part of mainstream distributions, and therefore integrate much more nicely into the "easy" way of doing things. I've only ever used Debian, and others may well evangelise their own distributions, but I certainly find it to be good. Even using the most recent stable release from 2 years ago, I was able to install it from scratch using Speakup and an external speech synthesiser. The next version of Debian is due to be released shortly. As for Dectalk, I'm not a big expert on this synth but you're likely to need to use hardware for this, and I don't know if it will work with Orca. Geoff.