Hi Michael,
As long as you have a laptop with say a PII or better (say something built
in the last six years or so), then it should have the CPU power to handle
software speech. I think that the most important thing for you to do
would be to figure out if Linux supports all of the components you need to
work on anything you buy. I have an IBM Thinkpad R40 which I occasionally
boot into Linux, and the sound card and network card work, although it
seems that only one program can write to the sound card at a time, which
can be annoying. A user-level program such as ESD might theoretically be
able to overcome this, although the last time I checked it offered no way
to drain the audio sent to it, which would make it unusable for a screen
reader that needs to be able to silence the speech. I have not been able
to get the wireless card to work (it may be doable with ndiswrapper if
nothing else, but I haven't tried that). Anyway, having a multi-channel
sound card would be nice if possible.
Laptops are a lot more proprietary than desktops. You cannot simply buy a
case and motherboard off the shelf for a laptop and add a cpu, memory, a
video card, a hard disk, etc. as you can with a desktop. So my guess
would be that your sister's contact could build you a desktop but not a
laptop.
-- Michael Gorse / AIM:linvortex / http://mgorse.home.dhs.org --
On Sun, 14 Aug 2005, MICHAEL WEAVER wrote:
I am thinking of purchasing a laptop. This may be a better solution for
example if I am wanting support from my local linux user group as I would be
able to take a Laptop to Vox Bar where my LUG meets and they may be able to
help me get Linux up and running.
However I have a question.
How much system resources does speech use when running Linux with
screenreaders and software speech?
I want to be sure that I get a Laptop that not only will run Linux but that
will support speech through the soundcard.
My sister knows someone through her boyfriend or maybe ex boyfriend as
recently they were having difficulty who she claims can build systems because
he knows about hardware but I am dubious as to whether he would only know
about building systems to Windows specifications only.
I have taken a brief look at the Linux howto through going through the Ubuntu
Installation Guide and have had a brief look at the Linux Laptops site as
well.
I wonder if it maybe better to see if my sister's contact does have the
knowledge to build a laptop to Linux specs or whether I should just try and
find one in a store?
I was thinking of installing Linux on my PC in my flat which is already
connected to my Broadband MODEM which I have backed up but need to be careful
as I am beginner to Linux. Dad said he could give me an old desktop only
there isn't really any room for it in my computer room and as it wouldn't be
connected to my Broadband MODEM, I might have a problem for example if I were
to install Ubuntu, I wouldn't be able to do the command to get Gnopernicus.
Hope someone can give me advice.
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