Actually I've found a bunch of dell laptops (most of the latitudes) that have serial ports so will probably go with one of those. On Sun, Jul 16, 2006 at 05:39:33PM +0100, Michael Whapples wrote: > My comment about the sound card was more to do with using something like > GRML, where the CD contains sound drivers, speakup and software speech > components, so Alex would be able to install a distribution of linux using > software speech. Admittedly this is not quite as good as using a hardware > synth and speakup for install as it requires the system to boot without any > problems (at least problems that don't prevent it booting and don't affect > the sound card), before speech can be started. I would guess that it would > be easier to find a modern laptop that meets those requirements than the > requirement of a serial port (particularly considering his budget). > > From > Michael Whapples > > Laura Eaves writes: > > > Doesn't the sound card require a driver? At what point is that loaded? The > > serial port is probably not essential for any purpose other than boot time > > access, so for other peripherals a USB or pcmcia to serial adaptor is > > sufficient. > > --le > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Michael Whapples" <mikster4 at msn.com> > > To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> > > Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2006 5:57 PM > > Subject: Re: laptops with serial ports > > > > > > What is the reason for serial port? If it is to be able to install linux > > with speakup, then would it be possible to choose something with a suitable > > sound card and use software speech in something like GRML. I think people > > were saying in discussions about GRML that it is possible to install debian > > from that, and it should most certainly be possible to install gentoo with > > that (as I think all the install stuff is in the stage file that you > > decompress to the hard disk and and the speech is provided by the linux CD). > > > > As I remember last year when my old HP laptop got stolen, it was very hard > > to find a replacement with a serial port (although I did find one at Dell, > > the inspiron 510m (I think no longer in production)). Sorry I can't help too > > much with that part, all the ones I can find seem out of your price limit > > (evesham computers have one with a serial port, but approx 1200 > > www.evesham.com). May be one of these companies that can build laptops to > > order could do something, but I think they will be too expensive if you need > > to stick to that limit. > > > > If you want the serial port for other things, then is there other solutions > > with various adaptors from other ports suitable? > > > > From > > Michael Whapples > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Alex Snow" <alex_snow at gmx.net> > > To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> > > Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 7:29 PM > > Subject: ot: laptops with serial ports > > > > > >> Hi All, > >> > >> Looking at retiring my old Latitude cpt in favor of something a bit > >> faster. What current laptops do people here have experience with? My > >> main requirement is something with a serial port, and I'd like to find > >> something under $1,000. Any input would be apreciated. > >> > >> -- > >> MSDOS didn't get as bad as it is overnight -- it took over ten years > >> of careful development. > >> -- dmeggins at aix1.uottawa.ca > >> > >> > >> > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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 -- Anyone who thinks UNIX is intuitive should be forced to write 5000 lines of code using nothing but vi or emacs. AAAAACK! -- Discussion on the intuitiveness of commands, especially Emacs
