Re: Linux and Orca
Ambro, let me begin by saying Ubuntu 13 is not a good choice if accessibility is a concern. The developers of Ubuntu chose to switch to a less accessible desktop environment, Unity, which broke accessibility on a number of levels. The problem isn't with Orca, but with the desktop Ubuntu uses which has some serious accessibility issues. Some of those have been fixed in Ubuntu 14, but I'd recommend trying one of the following Linux distributions.
If you don't mind using a fully customize distribution made exclusively for the blind and low vision I recommend Vinux. It has a huge wiki of documentation, and is based on Ubuntu 12.04 with all the accessibility patches and applications installed by default. Meaning you are likely to get a fairly accessible version of Linux by using Vinux..
If you wish to stick with Ubuntu there is a more accessible version called Ubuntu Gnome which ships with the Gnome desktop, and comes with most of the up to date accessi bility software. It is pretty much what I use, but is not as well documented as Vinux.
Fedora 20 is also accessible. the Installer is a bit of an issue, but once installed you will get a fairly up to date and accessible flavor of Linux if you install it with Gnome as your desktop.
As for installing third-party voices that is possible. However, it all depends on if you want free or commercial voices. For commercial voices I recommend the Cepstral voices from Cepstral.com which are probably the most human sounding voices available for Linux currently. Another popular set of commercial voices is Voxin, which is the name Eloquence goes by under Linux, which might ease your transition from Jaws to Orca. As far as free voices goes there aren't many, and I'd say the best free voice is Pico. Although, Pico is still a tad on the robotic side.
Finally, as for apps there are many good apps for Linux that are very accessible with Orca. There is LibreOffice, whi ch is a free clone of Microsoft Office, complete with a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentations application. For text editing the Gnome default editor Gedit is fairly accessible. For multimedia Totem Movie Player is the closest thing you can find that compares to Windows Media and it can play pretty much everything such as DVD movies, mp3s, wma, wav, etc if you get and install all the third-party plugins for it. Banshee is sort of like iTunes which can stream radio casts, play mp3s, and a bunch of other things. Gpodder is a fully accessible podcast client. If you are into listening to podcasts Gpodder is one of the best I have found. Firefox of course is what you would use for browsing the internet, and Thunderbird can be used for e-mail. My point being there is lots of software for Linux that is reasonably accessible. You just need someone to point you in the right direction.
URL: http://forum .audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=173108#p173108
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