[nfbcs] getting started with linux (was: talking Windows)

Fri Jun 15 16:47:29 UTC 2012

My opinion is that you should start by finding an older piece of hardware 
and installing linux on it. Linux can run on a lot less powerful machine 
than Windows does. If a machine once ran Windows XP, it will probably run 
linux today.  I don't know what things are like where you live but here in 
Madison, Wisconsin, machines like that are a dime a dozen. People will give 
them away rather than pay the recycling fee.

Different distrobutions of linux are called "flavors". I primarily use a 
flavor called debian. The current stable release of debian allows you to do 
an install via a hardware speech synth.   Once the install is done, you can 
use software speech. In fact, the GUI screen reader, orca,  will be enabled 
by default if you do a talking install via a hardware synth.   There is no 
way to install with software speech.

Right now, I don't know of a way to do a talking install without a hardware 
speech synthesizer. The next version of debian linux will have a talking 
install. And you can try it already. The install itself worked very well for 
me last time I tried it but once the install was done, I couldn't get speech 
working. Go figure. You could try it though. The current testing release is 
code named wheezy. Or if you have a hardware speech synth, you could start 
with debian stable (code named squeeze).
http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/debian-installer/

Another thing you could do is try some of the live CDs out there. I usually 
use a flavor called grml for that.  But grml is intended as a rescue disk. 
So if your machine crashes, you can boot grml and fix it.  But it doesn't 
have a GUI.
http://www.grml.org.

There is documentation on http://wiki.iavit.org on getting speech with grml.

Another live CD is vinux. This is a flavor of linux based on ubuntu which 
you may have heard of. Vinux is just like ubuntu except that its customized 
for the visually impaired.
http://www.vinuxproject.org

PS: I'd rather not do private email because I think others might be able to 
contribute or  benefit from what we say here. That's kind of the whole point 
of an email list.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "jeff crouch" <jeffanel at gmail.com>
To: "NFB in Computer Science Mailing List" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, June 15, 2012 10:51 AM
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] talking Windows repair?

> To John, Can you e mail me off list, I am wanting to get started in
> linix, but don't know ware to begin.
>
> thanks
>
> 73
> kd8qiq
> Jeff Crouch
>
> On 6/15/12, Blake Hardin <blakehardin5487 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Well, I can help with that. I have the registry entries for it. I will
>> send them to the list.
>>
>> On 6/15/12, John Heim <jheim at math.wisc.edu> wrote:
>>> Maybe it was on the iavit talk list.  (International Association of
>>> Visually
>>>
>>> Impaired Technologists.) I'll ask there but I'd have sworn it was on 
>>> this
>>> list.
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Steve Jacobson" <steve.jacobson at visi.com>
>>> To: "NFB in Computer Science Mailing List" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
>>> Sent: Friday, June 15, 2012 9:25 AM
>>> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] talking Windows repair?
>>>
>>>
>>>> What I believe John is talking about is that there was a post somewhere
>>>> several months back about making
>>>> changes so that screen readers could talk under "Safe Mode."  It
>>>> involved
>>>>
>>>> making some changes in the
>>>> registry and some other changes as well.  The trouble is I don't even
>>>> remember which list I saw this on,
>>>> but I will try to look around to see if I saved the message.  Maybe 
>>>> this
>>>> little bit of worthless
>>>> information will trigger someone else's memory on this.
>>>>
>>>> Best regards,
>>>>
>>>> Steve Jacobson
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, 15 Jun 2012 01:57:07 -0500, Blake Hardin wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>Hi, not sure where you heard this but I would be interested to haha
>>>>
>>>>>On 6/14/12, John Heim <jheim at math.wisc.edu> wrote:
>>>>>> I'm trying to set up some dual-boot Win7/linux machines. After I
>>>>>> install
>>>>>> linux, I need to repair the Win7 installation. I heard some talk 
>>>>>> about
>>>>>> a
>>>>>> talking Win PE disk. Can I use that to do my repair? Where is the
>>>>>> download?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>--
>>>>>If you have an interest in computers please see my blog at
>>>>>everythingaboutcomputers.org
>>>>
>>>>>_______________________________________________
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> If you have an interest in computers please see my blog at
>> everythingaboutcomputers.org
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>
>
> -- 
> 73
> kd8qiq
> jeff crouch
>
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