IBM VIA voice for Linux

[Janina Sajka]

Hi, Charley:

Oh, it works pretty well, actually. In fact, I use it with emacspeak in 
circumstances when I cannot use a hardware speech synthesizer easily, such 
as in meetings and on Amtrak. I used it all day yesterday, as a matter of 
fact.

There are issues with ViaVoice for linux, however. Among others, it only 
works well with the OSS drivers, and not with ALSA. This is regretable and 
probably eminently fixable, were we able to access the source (or get IBM 
to simply fix it). But, getting them to fix it means knowing who to talk 
to at IBM.

The larger issue, as I think I said, seems to be that IBM is releasing 
product and update after product and update of ViaVoice for Windows, while 
the linux products languish. I guess that is how it is when the source is 
proprietary. Development is someone else's priority, and not the user's 
option.

 On Thu, 31 Jan 2002, Charles Crawford wrote:

> Janina,
> 
>          What are you saying here?  Not sure.  Sounds like you are saying 
> that it does not work?
> 
> -- Charlie Crawford.
> At 11:46 AM 1/31/02 -0500, you wrote:
> >I think this would be news if they had updated the version they're
> >offering, but they haven't updated linux since March. Regretably, it seems
> >as though IBM's commitment to linux does not extend to ViaVoice, given the
> >extent of offerings of ViaVoice for Windows products, and the paucity of
> >offerings for linux.
> >  On Wed, 30 Jan 2002 rmann at rmisp.net wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > Hi.  I thought that some of you may be interested to know that the IBM VIA
> > > Voice speech engine can now be freely downloaded for Linux at the URL
> > > http://www.software.ibm.com/speech/dev.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Speakup mailing list
> > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> > >
> >
> >--
> >
> >                                 Janina Sajka, Director
> >                                 Technology Research and Development
> >                                 Governmental Relations Group
> >                                 American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
> >
> >Email: janina at afb.net           Phone: (202) 408-8175
> >
> >Chair, Accessibility SIG
> >Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
> >http://www.openebook.org
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Speakup mailing list
> >Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> >http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina at afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org