Thank you for the discussion concerning live cds and philosophy. It is valuable and thought provoking. I have tried several live cds looking for speakup, but not Debian. Yet. Thats what I will try next. In a perfect world, all operating systems would speak from boot and let the sighted turn it off with a click. Even W****. Of course it is not a perfect world. I believe a Vinux maintainer is a student at CAVI, the tech school for the blind. It sounded like Vinux is still supported based on his student introduction. Scott Scott -- Scott D. Henning Architectural Audio Design PO Box 1372 Durango, Colorado 81302