Options for buying a computer.

[Janina Sajka]

Well, I take it back. No speakup for you yet.

On Fri, 1 Mar 2002, Amanda Lee wrote:

> Get into the frame of mind of thinking about a USB port as now being the
> most universal port going forward until something else comes along to
> trump it.  My NOtebook has 4 <g>!  No serial port; 1 parallel port and
> ah'yes! a Firewire Port ...  Modems, keyboards, Speech Synthesizers,
> Network Interfaces, Scanners, Printers, most any peripheral out there
> these days is available in a USB life form! <g>!
> 
> Amanda Lee
> 
> Alexandria, VA
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, 26 Feb 2002, Steve Holmes wrote:
> 
> > You might be better off dealing with a local computer shop in your area
> > who might be willing to sell you a computer to your specifications with no
> > preinstalled anything.  Then you can stipulate that you want at least one
> > serial port, ISA slots or whatever.  Obviously if you are using new
> > hardware, new network cards, SCSI host adaptors, etc., you might not need
> > ISA slots but you probably need one or more serial ports for synth and
> > modem.  A lot of these local computer shops are quite reasonable and
> > certainly more flexible than a mail order place.  The problem with a lot
> > of the big stores and such, they preinstall operating systems and software
> > and there are sometimes warantee implications at stake if the machine is
> > reformatted with your own OS.  Just another thing to wrinkle up your
> > research <sigh>.
> >
> > If top of the line performance isn't too critical to you, a used machine
> > might not be a bad bet either.  Linux doesn't require near the resources
> > that winblows does thus there's often a lot of people selling off their
> > older pentiums like a 133 or 200 and that will run linux perfectly!
> >
> > On Mon, 25 Feb 2002, Anna Schneider wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > Hi everyone.  If my message isn't very clear, I appologize ahead of time.
> > > I've had a very frustrating day in computer research lnd.  Even knowing
> > > that Linux isn't mainstream, I didn't know things would be this difficult,
> > > so if I'm a bit hard to follow, that's why.
> > >
> > > What I want to know is, short of building my own computer, are there any
> > > options for either buying a computer with Linux already installed or for
> > > buying a computer with no operating system on it to begin with?  Dell will
> > > only install on business systems, and Compaq's web site claims that
> > > several versions of Linux are among the operating systems they offer, but
> > > when I called the number listed, I didn't get any people, I only got "You
> > > live in Seattle Washington, Compaq computers are available at these
> > > locations."  Mutter mutter mutter.
> > >
> > > And while I'm here I'll ask a couple of other things.  Is there a list
> > > anywhere of scsi scanners currently in production complete with features
> > > and prices?
> > >
> > > And I've seen the occasional mention of a program called Viavoice on here?
> > > Is this a screen reader for Linux, and if so, what are its positives,
> > > negatives, and how does it compare to Speak Up?
> > >
> > > Thanks much.
> > >
> > > Anna
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > 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
> >
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> 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