First of all, if you had taken the time to have a look at the blog for TalkingArch https://blog.talkingarch.tk/ you would have seen the post where I specifically mentioned that an older CD-sized image was still available, and how to request it. I still don't know how Arch itself will handle being larger than 700MB, which will likely happen by the end of the year, but I'm guessing they will have similar requirements, possibly with no way to request a CD copy. I do keep July's iso around, which is the last one under 700MB. To be quite honest with you, I have only had one complaint about the iso being larger than 700MB, and it comes from you, and is a complaint about the image being too big for a CD instead of the expected request for a smaller image. I have mentioned the size increases in several places since April or May of this year, and have even tried to get input from users, and all the input I have gotten until now indicated that I should just go ahead and build the larger images, because no one uses CD's that can't write to a flash drive or DVD instead. My comaintainer did mention keeping around a smaller copy while it works, so I have done this, providing a way to request this smaller copy if needed. Although it hasn't yet been a month, I have absolutely 0 requests for a CD-sized copy of TalkingArch until you cited this as a reason why you can't recommend it, which I must see as a baseless complaint rather than a serious request for an image of a smaller size. Regarding the sound problem on your specific card, I can probably fix this if I have a little more information about the problem. On my system, the emu10k1 driver works perfectly, and there is no problem with the volume. So the problem appears to be specific to your card rather than the driver itself. Given this, I will be unable to test your device without your participation, and since you have as much as said that you are not interested in Arch at all, I will be unable to help you fix your specific problem, not due to a lack of interest on my part, but due to your unwillingness to help test any fixes I may be able to make, and my inability to test such fixes on my own. Regarding brltty, I have no braille equipment, nor do I have any serial speech synthesizer, so I am unable to test this either. My comaintainer is able to work with braille, and I believe external speech as well, so he may be able to help you, but then again, you have only complained about the way we handle TalkingArch on a public list, and how much better you feel Debian and Ubuntu are, rather than reporting a problem in an attempt to get it fixed, so there's again probably little we can do. Regarding blind specific distros, I have just as much of a problem with them as you, but TalkingArch is *only* the talking live image, and is not a blind specific distro. Once you install TalkingArch, what you actually end up with is Arch Linux, just as you would have had you installed it from the Arch iso at https://archlinux.org/. This is completely intentional, as we wanted it to be just as close to Arch Linux in form and function as possible, and the installation process should give you the real thing, not some sort of a blind specific install, unless you perform the extra installation steps to get a talking system. That said, I find it rather odd that you complain about what we didn't fix soon enough for you in TalkingArch, and how bad you think blind specific distros are, but then you turn right around and say that you'll be making a talking Debian live CD that is essentially TalkingArch for Debian with a single developer, specifically you, because you think you can somehow do it better. Well, I guess that means that we can't expect any participation from you at all, either in making fixes or testing them. I do, however, wish you the best of luck in your endeavor. Debian is indeed a good distro to work with, and I'm sure it will serve you well. Regarding TalkingArch not starting with a working graphical environment, TalkingArch is not the only talking image available that is based at least partially on Arch Linux. Sonar is based on Manjaro, which is an Arch-based distro, and it does start with a talking graphical environment, either MATE or GNOME, your choice. It has a very similar rolling release model to Arch, but addes unstable, testing and stable branches somewhat similar to Debian, but kept up-to-date with the latest software. Perhaps this would be better for those who need a talking graphical desktop. Finally, I do wish to apologize for any e-mail I may have missed at the TalkingArch support address. I do know that I missed some, and wasn't able to answer some others in a timely manner. At this point, I believe I'm the only one handling the support e-mail, so if your question went unanswered, it was not due to a lack of interest in fixing a problem, but possibly either an oversite on my part or a question for which I was unable to find an answer. Perhaps the IRC channel would have solved your problem more quickly, as there are more people who can help you. #talkingarch at irc.netwirc.tk is always open, and you can even request a CD image there. The entire aim of this channel is to be as fun and friendly as possible, and to help you in any way we can. That said, biters will be bitten back, as we do have an uncensored channel. Therefore, if you want a fun and friendly place to hang out and to discuss TalkingArch or anything else, feel free to drop in, but do be friendly yourself in order to keep the temperature from rising too high. Sent from my something or other _______________________________________________ Speakup mailing list Speakup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup
