VMWare is free? If yes, would you give me the address to download it? And is it possible to run it under Windows XP? Thanks. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Whapples" <mwhapples@xxxxxxx> To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2007 7:52 PM Subject: Re: Some Questions About Linux And SpeakUp > Speakup and orca perform two different tasks, they work on different > parts of the operating system. To understand this you will need to > understand the difference of the text console and the GUI in Linux. > > The text console of Linux, is a purely text based system. If you wish to > make a Ms comparison, the text console is like DOS. The text console > provides nearly (possibly all) the apps you will need. Many use the text > console as it is simpler, faster, and to some a preferable way to work. > The GUI is a Windows like environment. This environment may be more > welcoming to a person used to using Ms Windows, as in the GUI there are > all the usual things you expect, menus, list views, etc, meaning you > don't necessarily need to know how to use it fully (where as in the text > console you really need to know the commands). These two environments > are entirely separate, but you can have both environments on the system > (to use another Ms comparison, in the days of windows 95 it was possible > to use a proper DOS environment but you could also load into windows on > that one machine, Linux is like this, not like windows XP where the only > DOS like environment is a command window). > > Now to explain why you would need speakup and orca. Speakup works only > for the text console (again in Ms terms, DOS screen readers could only > read DOS), and Orca only works in the GUI (a windows screen reader only > works in windows or a command prompt window, not a full DOS system). In > the GUI in Linux, there are command prompt terminal windows which work > with Orca, but I don't think Orca works as well as speakup does when I > want to do text commands. > > One thing I would say, remember Linux stuff is generally free, so if you > have the time, you may just want to try a few distros to find out what > suits you. You may wish to use a virtual machine system such as vmware > to save having to keep reformatting drives while you just try things out > and then when you have decided you could install your choice properly so > you are running directly in Linux. > > It can be hard to answer some of the questions you have asked as alot > comes down to personal preference, so that is why I suggested try some > out and make your choice. > > From > Michael Whapples > On Sun, 2007-07-08 at 07:55 +0330, Parham wrote: >> Sorry, something is not clear here. If Ubuntu has a screen reader itself, >> why do I need the support of Speakup? >> And also, Orca doesn't support command lines? >> Yes. So far Ubuntu is very good since I want something which has gui and >> the >> text version both together, but these questions that I mentioned above >> would >> be what I will help me decide. >> Thanks for your help, both. > > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
