Category: Geeks r Us
Hello,
I am looking into taking the leap into Linux. I will tell you now, it will be a while. I have to get the cash for a new machine, so that I can totally turn over a box into Linux. I would like to do the whole thing including install, but right now, know nothing. I would apreciate any help from those of you that know the Linux scene. I would like to here your experiences with different Distrobutions, Screen reading pacages, Emacspeak, speakup, etc. Also, I would love to know about any learning resources you would recomend. Thanks guys.
I've been wanting to do this as well, but I don't know anything either. On thing I wonder though is if any screen readers will work with it. But it is a good thought about switching from windows.
I was kinda hoping that i wouldn't end up beeing the one that had to explain about this but dw, its fine.
First lets just skip over the whole well what is linux thing, because at this point it seems like niether of you are planning to switch this minute.
REgarding post 1, the nice thing about linux is that you can run it on a computer that would run windows crap in comparisan.
I mean my linux box cost me £40 of ebay if you don't include the wireless card, and i'm perfectly happy using it with its p3 processer and 192 mb of ram.
Post 2, the distributions that i would direct you to all have screenreaders built in to them.
Both of you can add me to msn (profile) if you wanna talk or ask questions, but i'm by no means the best, but i could start you off.
BEN.
I'd recommend grml (www.grml.org), which is a live CD using speakup. You can download the cd, read the instructions, burn it, and experiment using your current windows system. Since it's a live CD, your hard drive isn't touched, and their is no worry of damaging anything. GRML is designed so that nearly everything is done using the console. This provides the greatest level of accessibility, but the learning curve may be steep. If you're looking for something with a GUI, you'll want to use ubuntu (www.ubuntu.com) which also has a live CD version. This uses Orca, which is a screen reader for the Gnome graphical environment.
I'd also recommend ubuntu and orca. I haven't had a chance to really play with it, but I have seen it in action, and, with a little work, it could be great.
Hi,
I would definitely recommend having a look at Ubuntu and Orca. Just some terminology you may or may not already know:
Ubuntu is one of a variety of Linux distributions. It offers all the power of the text console, and will allow you to use screen readers like Emacspeak and Speakup; However, it also ships with a very up to date version of Gnome, which includes Orca.
Gnome is a component of something called X Windows. For now, just know that it is to Linux what Windows is to dos. So, if you were comfortable working in text mode and typing a lot of commands, you'd use the Linux text console, if you wanted to run programs in a more Windows like environment, with a start menu, menu bars, alt tabbing between applications, etc, you'd work in Gnome. Orca is a screen reader for the Gnome environment. It has been in development for the last few years, and is already extremely usable.
More info about Orca can be found here:
http://live.gnome.org/Orca
if you only want to work in text mode, then you can get away with a very minimal system configuration; However, if you want to jump in and use Gnome to its full potential, then Windows XP is a good guideline. In other words, if you wouldn't want to try running XP on it, don't try to run Gnome either. at minimum, I'd recommend a machine with a 20 gig hard drive, 512 megs of ram, and at least an 850 mhz processor.
One other really cool thing about Ubuntu is that you don't need to wait to get a new machine in order to start learning it. Ubuntu offers something called a Live CD, which is available for download. Basically, you can run a full featured Ubuntu system right from this CD without making any changes to your machine. The only downsides to running from the live cd are that performance is really slow, and you can't easily save things like settings. So for example, if you were to run the live cd, configure it to go online, get it set up for messenger and email, you'd have to do all that configuring again next time you rebooted the disk. The other nice thing about the live cd is that when the time comes, and you actually want to install Ubuntu to your hard drive, you can do so right from the desktop, simply by selecting the Install system icon.
A relatively current version of the Ubuntu Live cd can be downloaded from here:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/feisty/herd-4/feisty-desktop-i386.iso
I hope this helps. If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to reply here or drop me a PM.
Good luck,
--Al
You, my friend, are a lifesaver. I will try the live CD versions of this for now because it will give me an idea of if I will want to pursue this further. I knew there were good screen reading options for Linux, but wasn't sure where to begin, or which distrobutions were going to be best suited to what I was hoping to do. I had sort of been looking at the Speakup enabled Fedora, but Ubuntu sounds like a good one to try as well. I can't play today, but I will be able to play soon.
Thanks again,
Amy
To fully understand Linux you'll need to understand first off that windows programs will not run on it. The good news is however that you can run Linux, specifically Ubuntu, freom a live cd. A live cd is a disk that will boot and you can run the entire linux o'/s from the disk without installing it, jjust burn the iso image, reboot you computer with the disk in the drive and away you go. You should also be aware of the screen reader called Orca. Orca, as I mentioned in my intro to linux post, is a flexible, extensible and scriptable screen reader that can run under the Gnome desktop. If you'd like to run this cd, just visit www.cdimage.ubuntu.com and download the ubuntu feisty 7.04 cd. Linux is free of course, and orca in my opinion is the JAWS equivalent to linux. To find out more about Orca, read my post about gnome accessibility in this forum, and also read the orca main page at http://live.gnome.org/Orca. Everything on the CD is accessible to orca. Ubuntu has everything you'd want gaim internet messenger that can connect to all your protocols all in 1 window, open office, firefox web browser which is still under development, but firefox 3.0 beta a6 works great with orca, and a whole lot more. I only run ubuntu and i love it. To learn about Linux, you might go to www.linuxforums.org, www.linuxquestions.com www.linux.com www.distrowatch.com and many many more. Google is your friend. Let me know if you need further help.
I forgot to clarify one thing that people are not making clear. GRML is great with speakup, however speakup requires a hardware synth, which are hard to come by these days. Orca and the gnome desktop utilizes a software synth which is put out through your speakers. Good Luck!
Speakup does not require hardware synths, it has the ability to use software speach although things like kernal pannics may not be spoken.
Thanks I didn't know that. I saw a project that was supposed to allow software speech but at the time was nothing useful at all. Please point me in the direction of some bootable install disks with speakup with software speech such as debian or gentoo.
You can boot the grml live cd and get software speech. It's something like "grml sftsyn" at the boot loader and "sftsyn" at the first shell prompt. The projects to look at are speakup, speech-dispatcher, and speechd_up. My laptop can boot either Windows XP or Debian and with Debian can use either hardware or software speech depending on which kernel option I select. Pretty neat trick.
yeah grml comes with flite doesn't it?
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/feisty/herd-4/feisty-desktop-i386.iso
does not work :(
skpoet711
that is because this is now an old version of ubuntu, you will now need to go and get there newer reliece from there main webpage. Sorry but seeing as I can't give you a direct link just go there.
with ubuntu 8.4 there are many new changes and such that make orca better. I'm really likeing it.
lol
I did just that
:)
But with a 300KBps transfer rate, it still took some time for 700mb to pass through.
but would 64 bit version work too? or should I just stay with the standard
sorry, but when I said "work", I meant, would it be accessible via speech.