assistance with understanding speakup debian installation

[scott.shade at insightbb.com]

Hello folks, my name is Scott Shade.  A couple of you may have seen me on the reflecter a few nights ago.  I'm new to linux and particularly debian.  I've been trying to find the necessary files required to run debian with speakup and my braille n speak.  I'm going by the information recorded in matt campbell's look at linux recorded a few years ago butt, can't find certain directories on the ftp site for the necessary files.  Also, I don't understand why its necessary to partition the hard drive before the installation of debbian when there appears to be facilities within the installation program to do just that if you want to retain windows98 and make the necessary swop and native linux partitions for the installation of linux.  Can someone clear some of this up for me?  I'd like to retain my windows os for a while while I get familliar with linux.  I was going to use zipspeak, butt for some reason there appears to be a few necessary file folders missing in the final installation that makes it on to the hard drive making it impossible for me to configure my network card specificly and I'm not sure about the moniter.  Also, it makes more since to study debian documentation if that will be the os of choice.  Also, is there a newbie blind linux users list that I should subscribe to?  I think I heard mention of one butt, can't remember,  thanks, Scott
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