IBM VIA voice for Linux

IBM VIA voice for Linux

[rmann]

Hi.  I thought that some of you may be interested to know that the IBM VIA
Voice speech engine can now be freely downloaded for Linux at the URL
http://www.software.ibm.com/speech/dev.

Re: IBM VIA voice for Linux

[Janina Sajka]

I think this would be news if they had updated the version they're 
offering, but they haven't updated linux since March. Regretably, it seems 
as though IBM's commitment to linux does not extend to ViaVoice, given the 
extent of offerings of ViaVoice for Windows products, and the paucity of 
offerings for linux.
 On Wed, 30 Jan 2002 rmann@rmisp.net wrote:

> 
> Hi.  I thought that some of you may be interested to know that the IBM VIA
> Voice speech engine can now be freely downloaded for Linux at the URL
> http://www.software.ibm.com/speech/dev.
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org

Re: IBM VIA voice for Linux

[Cheryl Homiak]

Sorry, but even given this link I'm having trouble figuring out what to
download. Is it the link for the tts sdk for linux, because if I enter
there it gives me another link and then I end up with some kind of
registration form that wants all sorts of information.

-- 
				Cheryl

Re: IBM VIA voice for Linux

[Janina Sajka]

I believe you need both the sdk and the run time environment, and yes, you 
do need to agree to Sun's licensing terms, after you register with them. 
You only need to register once, though.

My advice may be flawed, however, as I have not gotten these toolkits to 
install, neither with the Sun rpms nor with the gunzips. I have not tried 
the gunzip since 1.3, but my recollection there was that the uncompressed 
files and the HOWTO didn't exactly agree on what should be where.



On Thu, 31 Jan 2002, Cheryl Homiak wrote:

> Sorry, but even given this link I'm having trouble figuring out what to
> download. Is it the link for the tts sdk for linux, because if I enter
> there it gives me another link and then I end up with some kind of
> registration form that wants all sorts of information.
> 
> 

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org

Re: IBM VIA voice for Linux

[Charles Crawford]

Janina,

         What are you saying here?  Not sure.  Sounds like you are saying 
that it does not work?

-- Charlie Crawford.
At 11:46 AM 1/31/02 -0500, you wrote:
>I think this would be news if they had updated the version they're
>offering, but they haven't updated linux since March. Regretably, it seems
>as though IBM's commitment to linux does not extend to ViaVoice, given the
>extent of offerings of ViaVoice for Windows products, and the paucity of
>offerings for linux.
>  On Wed, 30 Jan 2002 rmann@rmisp.net wrote:
>
> >
> > Hi.  I thought that some of you may be interested to know that the IBM VIA
> > Voice speech engine can now be freely downloaded for Linux at the URL
> > http://www.software.ibm.com/speech/dev.
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
>
>--
>
>                                 Janina Sajka, Director
>                                 Technology Research and Development
>                                 Governmental Relations Group
>                                 American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
>
>Email: janina@afb.net           Phone: (202) 408-8175
>
>Chair, Accessibility SIG
>Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
>http://www.openebook.org
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Speakup mailing list
>Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
>http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: IBM VIA voice for Linux

[Janina Sajka]

Hi, Charley:

Oh, it works pretty well, actually. In fact, I use it with emacspeak in 
circumstances when I cannot use a hardware speech synthesizer easily, such 
as in meetings and on Amtrak. I used it all day yesterday, as a matter of 
fact.

There are issues with ViaVoice for linux, however. Among others, it only 
works well with the OSS drivers, and not with ALSA. This is regretable and 
probably eminently fixable, were we able to access the source (or get IBM 
to simply fix it). But, getting them to fix it means knowing who to talk 
to at IBM.

The larger issue, as I think I said, seems to be that IBM is releasing 
product and update after product and update of ViaVoice for Windows, while 
the linux products languish. I guess that is how it is when the source is 
proprietary. Development is someone else's priority, and not the user's 
option.

 On Thu, 31 Jan 2002, Charles Crawford wrote:

> Janina,
> 
>          What are you saying here?  Not sure.  Sounds like you are saying 
> that it does not work?
> 
> -- Charlie Crawford.
> At 11:46 AM 1/31/02 -0500, you wrote:
> >I think this would be news if they had updated the version they're
> >offering, but they haven't updated linux since March. Regretably, it seems
> >as though IBM's commitment to linux does not extend to ViaVoice, given the
> >extent of offerings of ViaVoice for Windows products, and the paucity of
> >offerings for linux.
> >  On Wed, 30 Jan 2002 rmann@rmisp.net wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > Hi.  I thought that some of you may be interested to know that the IBM VIA
> > > Voice speech engine can now be freely downloaded for Linux at the URL
> > > http://www.software.ibm.com/speech/dev.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Speakup mailing list
> > > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> > >
> >
> >--
> >
> >                                 Janina Sajka, Director
> >                                 Technology Research and Development
> >                                 Governmental Relations Group
> >                                 American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
> >
> >Email: janina@afb.net           Phone: (202) 408-8175
> >
> >Chair, Accessibility SIG
> >Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
> >http://www.openebook.org
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Speakup mailing list
> >Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> >http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org

Re: IBM VIA voice for Linux

[Gregory Nowak]

Do you mean that one doesn't have to go through all that registration stuff anymore before being able to get it?
Greg


On Wed, Jan 30, 2002 at 08:00:02PM -0500, rmann@rmisp.net wrote:
> 
> Hi.  I thought that some of you may be interested to know that the IBM VIA
> Voice speech engine can now be freely downloaded for Linux at the URL
> http://www.software.ibm.com/speech/dev.
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup