Stoppard staggered into view and mumbled: > >Hi all, >Not being able to look at a computer screen means that it is very difficult >to get information on linux. > >I have found a 8.1 version of slackware and installing speakup sounds pretty >tricky. Particularly as i will not be able to look at the screen. > >I was wondering if there are other visualy impaired users of speakup on >this list or if it is for developers. I have been using jaws to look at >linux stuff most of the afternoon but the more i read the more it feels like >its harder than blind folded brain surgery. I am starting to think i would >be better off sticking with windows for the moment. > >I have been looking at a linux newbies questions web site for slackware but >its not very accessable using jaws. > >If anyone has any ideas it would be much appreciated. > >Thanks, >Nigel I am not sure where you are looking up Slackware since the latest release is version 9.0, not 8.1. If you can get to an ftp distribution site for Slackware, you might want to check out the SPEAKUP_DOCS.TXT and SPEAK_INSTALL.TXT files in the root directory for Slackware 9.0. The Slackware home ftp site is usually pretty swamped, so I recommend using a mirror site instead (a list of mirror sites is available on the Slackware home page at <a href="http://www.slackware.com/";> this place </a>). I have been totally blind for over 20 years, so all of my experience with Linux has been with Speakup and no vision. The system I am using to write this email does not even have a monitor connected to it, so non-blind persons would have to get used to my old speech synthesizer and Speakup before they could do much with this thing. Here is a brief history of my Linux experience, in case you still have any doubts about a blind person getting the OS up and running: January 2002: Installed Slackware 8.0 Linux on a non-talking system, using a DOS system as a terminal. August 2002: Acquired a Pentium 133 MHz system and installed Slackware 8.0 Linux with Speakup on it. This was my first fully talking Linux system. I installed the old Accent PC speech card from my DOS box into the relatively new system to get Linux up and talking. March 2003 (or so): I decided to upgrade my talkie Linux box to Slackware 9.0. This is my current system. Clearly many details have been left out here, but as you can tell from this basic history, Slackware Linux and Speakup are working well for me. The learning curve for Slackware can be a little steep for some people at first, but if you keep plugging at it, you should get the hang of things after a while. One point that should be made is that all of the major Linux distributions have initial default configurations that make them functional out of the box--you will have to adjust things for your own personal dial-up or network connections if you want to connect the system to internet, but the other critical stuff should mostly (or completely) come already set up well enough to get started. The more you work with the system, the more you will learn from it, so jump in and get your feet wet. I hope some of this rambling proves helpful. Have a _great_ day! -- Ralph. N6BNO. Wisdom comes from central processing, not from I/O. rreid at sunset.net http://personalweb.sunset.net/~rreid Opinions herein are either mine or they are flame bait. 1 = x^0
