hi, Emacspeak is exactly what you would love on the command line because as said by tim, shell in gnu/linux has a much better range of softwares and emacspeak can be a great desktop. it can do every thing for you and with the configuration you gave, it will fly like a rocket. you can learn about emacs and thus emacspeak from a lot of resources. happy hacking. Krishnakant On 01/05/2008, Tim Chase <blinux.list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > (sorry if this is a dupe...my mailer gave an odd error when I > sent previously, so I'm not sure it went through the first time) > > > A work computer will shortly be spare to requirements and would be a > > good opportunity for me to begin using Linux. this PC is a 2.6 > > celleron with 512 Mb of RAM. > > These specs are considerably better than my own Linux box (an 800 > MHz celeron laptop with only 320 megs of memory) and it runs > fine. Not stellar, but fine. It should run quite nicely on the > box you describe. > > Obscure hardware is the one piece it's hard to tell about: > -unsupported sound card (rare) > -soft-modem (if you have dialup rather than broadband) > -network card (NIC) or wireless built-in > > The NIC isn't usually a problem, but sometimes wireless can be > ornery. > > > I would appreciate any advice that would get me up and > > running. > > I'd burn a bootable CD of your favorite Linux distro (such as > Ubuntu, GRML, or I believe there's a Red-Hat live-CD with Speakup > built into it) and just try it at work to see what's identified. > It might even be something you could test while the PC is still > at work...just pop in the CD (might need sighted help to change > the BIOS boot-order), and then probe around to see what does or > doesn't work. > > If you're comfortable in Dos, it will take you a short while to > get used to the more powerful command-prompt in Linux (mostly > learning the new names for common commands you already use), but > once you get used to it, it's hard to go back. I still use both > regularly, and a true shell beats the pants off of Dos. > > Linux also has a much richer catalog of software designed to work > well from the command-line. Text editors, calenders, browsers, > email, todo-managers, calculators, spreadsheets, etc. I've > started cataloging some of my favorites (or ones I hear that > others use commonly) at > > http://tim.thechases.com/bvi/console.html > > Hope this helps, > > -tim > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Blinux-list mailing list > Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > _______________________________________________ Blinux-list mailing list Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list