Hello, everyone. My name is Robert (but you can call me Bob if you'd like). I am a partially blind Linux user; I have no sight at all in my left eye, and I have very limited vision in my right eye (an acuity measurement of 20/2000). I have been an Ubuntu user for nearly the past five years, however I am thinking of switching to Arch Linux. I guess I would consider myself an intermediate Linux user, but I have a lot more to learn. I have been trying out TalkingArch [1] (a modified Arch CD which comes with Speakup in a live session) in VirtualBox so that I can get a feel for Arch before I decide to install it onto my desktop system. I have a few questions regarding Speakup, and I hope that this is the best place for them (I do not know where else to take these questions). I do not mind learning more about and using the command line, but my wife absolutely must have a GUI environment. If I install GNOME, would I still be able to use Speakup in a console window? I had Arch installed in VirtualBox earlier today, but when I installed GNOME 3 the eSpeak voice sounded very garbled after a reboot. I am not sure what caused this; I reinstalled Arch in VirtualBox earlier and have not installed GNOME 3 yet. Now...this has been a bit confusing to me ever since my switch to Linux. I have heard of different sound servers (?) such as ALSA, ESD (?), and PulseAudio. Does Speakup work with PulseAudio or is ALSA required? I apologize for these questions; rest assured they are out of my ignorance. :) I have depended on screen magnification for a very long time, but I want to try to depend on it less, and so I am learning to use and work with screen readers such as Orca in GNOME and now Speakup. Honestly, I just feel quite lost. Regardless of that, though, I want to learn more about Linux, and Linux is all that I prefer to use. I would really appreciate any advice and guidance. Thanks for any help which you may offer. I am looking forward to learning more! Take care. [1] Arch Linux for the Blind: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_Linux_for_the_blind
