Some Questions About Linux And SpeakUp

[Michael Whapples]

I forgot to mention, the free vmware server (that's fine for trying out
Linux distros) can be downloaded at www.vmware.com, you will need to
complete the online form for a free registration key. There may be other
virtual machine software which may be open source, but I am not sure of
which of them work on windows.

As I may have indicated, Linux allows you all this choice, that's why
some apps may seem uneeded, other than speakup, there is also yasr,
screader, and emacspeak can all be used in the text console for screen
reading, but they all work in different ways and so you may find one is
better for different tasks, so you may choose to have them all installed
and use the one best for the task you are doing at the time. The term
"free" extends beyond the money meaning normally when using Linux.

From
Michael Whapples
On Sun, 2007-07-08 at 17:22 +0100, Michael Whapples wrote:
> Speakup and orca perform two different tasks, they work on different
> parts of the operating system. To understand this you will need to
> understand the difference of the text console and the GUI in Linux.
> 
> The text console of Linux, is a purely text based system. If you wish to
> make a Ms comparison, the text console is like DOS. The text console
> provides nearly (possibly all) the apps you will need. Many use the text
> console as it is simpler, faster, and to some a preferable way to work.
> The GUI is a Windows like environment. This environment may be more
> welcoming to a person used to using Ms Windows, as in the GUI there are
> all the usual things you expect, menus, list views, etc, meaning you
> don't necessarily need to know how to use it fully (where as in the text
> console you really need to know the commands). These two environments
> are entirely separate, but you can have both environments on the system
> (to use another Ms comparison, in the days of windows 95 it was possible
> to use a proper DOS environment but you could also load into windows on
> that one machine, Linux is like this, not like windows XP where the only
> DOS like environment is a command window).
> 
> Now to explain why you would need speakup and orca. Speakup works only
> for the text console (again in Ms terms, DOS screen readers could only
> read DOS), and Orca only works in the GUI (a windows screen reader only
> works in windows or a command prompt window, not a full DOS system). In
> the GUI in Linux, there are command prompt terminal windows which work
> with Orca, but I don't think Orca works as well as speakup does when I
> want to do text commands. 
> 
> One thing I would say, remember Linux stuff is generally free, so if you
> have the time, you may just want to try a few distros to find out what
> suits you. You may wish to use a virtual machine system such as vmware
> to save having to keep reformatting drives while you just try things out
> and then when you have decided you could install your choice properly so
> you are running directly in Linux.
> 
> It can be hard to answer some of the questions you have asked as alot
> comes down to personal preference, so that is why I suggested try some
> out and make your choice.
> 
> From
> Michael Whapples
> On Sun, 2007-07-08 at 07:55 +0330, Parham wrote:
> > Sorry, something is not clear here. If Ubuntu has a screen reader itself, 
> > why do I need the support of Speakup?
> > And also, Orca doesn't support command lines?
> > Yes. So far Ubuntu is very good since I want something which has gui and the 
> > text version both together, but these questions that I mentioned above would 
> > be what I will help me decide.
> > Thanks for your help, both.
> 
>