laptops with serial ports

[Michael Whapples]

My comment about the sound card was more to do with using something like 
GRML, where the CD contains sound drivers, speakup and software speech 
components, so Alex would be able to install a distribution of linux using 
software speech. Admittedly this is not quite as good as using a hardware 
synth and speakup for install as it requires the system to boot without any 
problems (at least problems that don't prevent it booting and don't affect 
the sound card), before speech can be started. I would guess that it would 
be easier to find a modern laptop that meets those requirements than the 
requirement of a serial port (particularly considering his budget).

From
Michael Whapples

 Laura Eaves writes:

> Doesn't the sound card require a driver? At what point is that loaded?  The 
> serial port is probably not essential for any purpose other than boot time 
> access, so for other peripherals a USB or pcmcia to serial adaptor is 
> sufficient.
> --le
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Michael Whapples" <mikster4 at msn.com>
> To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
> Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2006 5:57 PM
> Subject: Re: laptops with serial ports
> 
> 
> What is the reason for serial port? If it is to be able to install linux
> with speakup, then would it be possible to choose something with a suitable
> sound card and use software speech in something like GRML. I think people
> were saying in discussions about GRML that it is possible to install debian
> from that, and it should most certainly be possible to install gentoo with
> that (as I think all the install stuff is in the stage file that you
> decompress to the hard disk and and the speech is provided by the linux CD).
> 
> As I remember last year when my old HP laptop got stolen, it was very hard
> to find a replacement with a serial port (although I did find one at Dell,
> the inspiron 510m (I think no longer in production)). Sorry I can't help too
> much with that part, all the ones I can find seem out of your price limit
> (evesham computers have one with a serial port, but approx 1200
> www.evesham.com). May be one of these companies that can build laptops to
> order could do something, but I think they will be too expensive if you need
> to stick to that limit.
> 
> If you want the serial port for other things, then is there other solutions
> with various adaptors from other ports suitable?
> 
> From
> Michael Whapples
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Alex Snow" <alex_snow at gmx.net>
> To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
> Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 7:29 PM
> Subject: ot: laptops with serial ports
> 
> 
>> Hi All,
>>
>> Looking at retiring my old Latitude cpt in favor of something a bit
>> faster.  What current laptops do people here have experience with?  My
>> main requirement is something with a serial port, and I'd like to find
>> something under $1,000.  Any input would be apreciated.
>>
>> -- 
>> MSDOS didn't get as bad as it is overnight -- it took over ten years
>> of careful development.
>> -- dmeggins at aix1.uottawa.ca
>>
>>
>>
> 
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