From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from jdc.jasonjgw.net (jdc.jasonjgw.net [IPv6:2001:44b8:412f:6e00::2]) by befuddled.reisers.ca (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 40AE81EF78D for ; Sun, 12 May 2013 04:40:42 -0400 (EDT) Received: by jdc.jasonjgw.net (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 28E2B18063584; Sun, 12 May 2013 18:40:26 +1000 (EST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=simple/simple; d=jasonjgw.net; s=mail; t=1368348026; bh=rqc6pyB+bPeL5FrNxkbxjFkDHaqgDVZf9dI7h5Y7Rps=; h=Date:From:To:Subject:References:In-Reply-To; b=H9MxoMu6Ea7iFZs0yeul+6FAmZLlba6mm4wO0oT9ONxd2Vj2AFnnwSSrYyvhTVZOo Rv6MT5wgb8lWXqx63+NEvapp7vIbp/cuBco6bUKsJdRwJOjPShUWWyhyMSlAW2hR3y 90cVrkuxBFRsZ25FxdAIXoRjz5rAZauM2tcE4okM= Date: Sun, 12 May 2013 18:40:26 +1000 From: Jason White To: speakup@linux-speakup.org Subject: Re: Voxin was: Re: Switching to Linux Message-ID: <20130512084026.GA3842@jdc.jasonjgw.net> References: <518BAC38.8060708@math.wisc.edu> <20130509193744.GJ2324@bmcginty.hopto.org> <518C29C9.90704@gmail.com> <518C2BCC.3010003@tysdomain.com> <518C416D.3080309@insightbb.com> <20130510182712.GF3601@concerto.rednote.net> <20130511013524.GA9457@jdc.jasonjgw.net> <20130511035029.GL2324@bmcginty.hopto.org> <20130511183644.GJ3601@concerto.rednote.net> <518F50A9.6010502@baechler.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <518F50A9.6010502@baechler.net> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) X-BeenThere: speakup@linux-speakup.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.15 Precedence: list Reply-To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." List-Id: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 12 May 2013 08:40:44 -0000 Tony Baechler wrote: > Thank you for mentioning this! That was the point I was trying to make, > but I wasn't sure how to put it. No, I don't see it becoming open source > any time soon. It would be better to either rewrite something already out > there or write something from scratch, such as what was done with ESpeak. > Say what you want about the quality of the voice, but ESpeak still > remains the only truly open source solution in active development which > doesn't crash and is very responsive. The Festival voices seem to be > abandoned if I understand correctly. Mbrola isn't bad, but it is non-free > and is also not further developed. Mary TTS is being developed - I don't know about responsiveness though. > > With that said, I know very little about Voxin or whatever you want to > call it except that Oralux probably shouldn't legally be packaging it, > which is another reason why I wouldn't buy it. I think they simply bought a large number of licences from IBM. Of course, given that IBM et al., apparently aren't working on it anymore, any licence revenue they receive, for any operating system, is 100% profit at this point. If you want to buy out a proprietary synthesizer (crowd source the funding for example), I don't think this is a good candidate, and the money would be better contributed to a development effort around a newer synthesizer anyway.