Get into the frame of mind of thinking about a USB port as now being the most universal port going forward until something else comes along to trump it. My NOtebook has 4 <g>! No serial port; 1 parallel port and ah'yes! a Firewire Port ... Modems, keyboards, Speech Synthesizers, Network Interfaces, Scanners, Printers, most any peripheral out there these days is available in a USB life form! <g>! Amanda Lee Alexandria, VA On Tue, 26 Feb 2002, Steve Holmes wrote: > You might be better off dealing with a local computer shop in your area > who might be willing to sell you a computer to your specifications with no > preinstalled anything. Then you can stipulate that you want at least one > serial port, ISA slots or whatever. Obviously if you are using new > hardware, new network cards, SCSI host adaptors, etc., you might not need > ISA slots but you probably need one or more serial ports for synth and > modem. A lot of these local computer shops are quite reasonable and > certainly more flexible than a mail order place. The problem with a lot > of the big stores and such, they preinstall operating systems and software > and there are sometimes warantee implications at stake if the machine is > reformatted with your own OS. Just another thing to wrinkle up your > research <sigh>. > > If top of the line performance isn't too critical to you, a used machine > might not be a bad bet either. Linux doesn't require near the resources > that winblows does thus there's often a lot of people selling off their > older pentiums like a 133 or 200 and that will run linux perfectly! > > On Mon, 25 Feb 2002, Anna Schneider wrote: > > > > > Hi everyone. If my message isn't very clear, I appologize ahead of time. > > I've had a very frustrating day in computer research lnd. Even knowing > > that Linux isn't mainstream, I didn't know things would be this difficult, > > so if I'm a bit hard to follow, that's why. > > > > What I want to know is, short of building my own computer, are there any > > options for either buying a computer with Linux already installed or for > > buying a computer with no operating system on it to begin with? Dell will > > only install on business systems, and Compaq's web site claims that > > several versions of Linux are among the operating systems they offer, but > > when I called the number listed, I didn't get any people, I only got "You > > live in Seattle Washington, Compaq computers are available at these > > locations." Mutter mutter mutter. > > > > And while I'm here I'll ask a couple of other things. Is there a list > > anywhere of scsi scanners currently in production complete with features > > and prices? > > > > And I've seen the occasional mention of a program called Viavoice on here? > > Is this a screen reader for Linux, and if so, what are its positives, > > negatives, and how does it compare to Speak Up? > > > > Thanks much. > > > > Anna > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Speakup mailing list > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup >
