From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from eastrmmtao102.cox.net ([68.230.240.8]) by speech.braille.uwo.ca with esmtp (Exim 3.36 #1 (Debian)) id 1Ho1rV-0003Ci-00 for ; Tue, 15 May 2007 14:35:05 -0400 Received: from eastrmimpo01.cox.net ([68.1.16.119]) by eastrmmtao102.cox.net (InterMail vM.7.05.02.00 201-2174-114-20060621) with ESMTP id <20070515183435.NGER20334.eastrmmtao102.cox.net@eastrmimpo01.cox.net> for ; Tue, 15 May 2007 14:34:35 -0400 Received: from hedge ([72.198.87.190]) by eastrmimpo01.cox.net with bizsmtp id zWaa1W00746QN3s0000000; Tue, 15 May 2007 14:34:35 -0400 From: cmbrannon@cox.net (C.M. Brannon) To: speakup@braille.uwo.ca Subject: heretical thoughts was Re: Speakup dropped from Ubuntu Date: Tue, 15 May 2007 13:24:45 -0500 Message-ID: <87sl9yndw2.fsf@cox.net> User-Agent: Gnus/5.110006 (No Gnus v0.6) Emacs/21.4 (gnu/linux) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-BeenThere: speakup@braille.uwo.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9 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: Tue, 15 May 2007 18:35:06 -0000 Hi folks, I had a couple of observations that may not sit well with most of you ... Hardware synthesis is becoming obsolete. Why? More and more systems, especially laptops, are being manufactured without RS232 ports. When I buy my next laptop, I won't let the presence of RS232 be a determining factor. The vendors of USB synths won't release their product information, so these are unsupported. Thus, I'm not buying one. Who wants to do business with people like that anyhow? So it looks like software speech is the way of the future, at least for me. Next, software speech is more convenient, especially when using a laptop. You have to carry one less peripheral with you. The question to ask is this. Given the decline of hardware synthesis, is it really necessary to have speech support within the kernel itself? Software synthesizers run in user mode, so the benefits of a speech-enabled kernel -- notably a talking boot process -- are lost. Comments are welcome. PS. I'm not a GUI user, so I'm arguing from a console / command-line perspective. -- Chris