hi al, i have been using speakup for 24 hours now and like it. a friend of mine also has seen me use it and also likes the idea of it. however, he does not have a hardware synth, and he asked me to ask the list whether getting software speech under linux is far away? i heard that you, kirk and andy, are redesigning speakup, so would there be something that works vaguely in the near future (near=a month or so)! keep up the good work, saqib