I'm wondering, though, what kind of feedback overall I can expect from it. I'm giving serious thought to getting into system administration, yes, but if it's going to offer as much or, I guess, as little feedback as programs like asap for DOS have, then it probably isn't really worth my switching, and I'd likely be better off sticking to administering linux systems as best I can remotely, since I get more feedback that way. Also, how does it handle environments wherein the text is constantly changing? IE an active realtime communications medium. If I understand it correctly, it's designed to stop speaking when you start typing... is there perhaps a way that that can be changed, or at least temporarily disabled? Questions like that I'd rather have answered before I start looking for old computers to turn into experimental linux boxes. James At 12:19 PM 9/18/2006, you wrote: >I think it all depends on what you want out of linux. Are you hoping to >become a linux system administrator? If so, you'll want to get to know >speakup -- it rocks. I use it every day. I even have speakup on my laptop as >opposed to Windows 98. (It's a very old laptop.) > >But if you're just looking for a way to read email and browse the web, I >don't think you'll see a productivity increase by switching from a >windows/jaws system to linux/speakup. > >I've been telling all my blind friends who make their living doing computer >support to get into linux. IMO, it's a great career move. You're hardly >handicapped at all in linux system administration. Almost everything is text >based. > >But if you're not a computer nerd, I wouldn't bother trying to learn >linux/speakup. WWhen the GUI screen readers are better, then it might be >worthwhile to switch. > >I definately think the way to get started is with an older machine. I have >a LAN in my home running, well, everything... web server, dhcp, caching dns, >samba. It even has 2 sound cards so I can record more than 1 radio program >at a time. And it's just a pentium 450 with 384 Mb of ram. > >I don't know what the laws are like where you live but in Madison, >Wisconsin, you have to pay like $20 to dispose of a computer. So people are >more than willing to give you an old computer that linux and speakup will >run on just fine. That's how I would start. > > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "James Homuth" <james at the-jdh.com> >To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> >Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2006 5:52 PM >Subject: General questions from someone who's never used Speakup... > > > >I do have linux experience, though not running it off my own machine, > > since until recently I'd been unaware of anything remotely decent so > > far as text-to-speech capabilities for it. What I'd like to know, > > however, is what kind of feedback/configurability is offered with the > > current version of Speakup? I should probably point out that, coming > > from Windows, I'm probably going to end up comparing this with > > whatever expectations I have after using JAWS and/or Window Eyes. > > I've been tossing around the idea of finding a spare machine just to > > fiddle around with linux and check out Speakup, at the very least, > > but I like to know what I'm getting into before I go and jump in with > > both feet. If anyone knows where I can get my hands on something like > > a demo of the program in action, or can maybe tell me what their > > experience with Speakup has been like, that'd be awesome. Email me on > > or off list, whichever. > > > > James > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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
