Getting started

[Aldo]

On Sat, Nov 05, 2005 at 01:21:54AM +0100, Odd Martin Baanrud wrote:
> Witch programs are the best for:
> * Mail

Mutt and Pine are both very fine but Pine can read mail+news, while Mutt 
is much more flexible than Pine

> * News
Pine is your friend. Slrn is not so intuitive as the way Pine works.

> * Web browsing
Lynx of course, but also Links2 and ELinks:
ELinks provides now support of the tls, ssl and spidermonkey 
(javascript) lib; under Gnu/Linux you may use all 3 browsers I 
mentionned together, no problem.

> * Listening to diffrent kinds of multimedia.
Mplayer, but it is not standard with a distro since there are codecs who 
aren't under a FREE License: mplayer + w32codecs (for wma, mp3, avi, 
mwv, wav, mov) and vorbis-tools (containing ogg123 for .ogg files) are 
your friends.

> * IRC
I like Bitchx, other prefer irssi.

> * Speech
Festival if it is for English and if you support FREE GNU/GPL Licensed 
software.

> * Sound recording/editing
Ecasound.

> * OCR
Gocr.

> * CD-recording
Cdrdao, cdrecord, mkisofs, cdparanoia, cdda2wav, dvd+rw-tools are 
interesting tools. You may learn using them separately or with an easy 
Bash script like BashBurn.

> Also, is the version of Skype for Linux accessible with braille/speech?
Skype is not for the console, it is by the way non-free, so nobody can 
pick up the source to build a console veresion of Skype.
But there are solutions like ohphone or asterisk.

> Does it exists a version of MSN for Linux?
Yes, Kopete for the graphical Kde environment, or Amsn, also graphical; 
but why should you use Msn if there is Jabber? 

> Well, this were many questions. I hope someone can answer them, so I 
> can have some basic things to start with.

I suggest you also to visit http://www.gnu.org/ : it is useful for any 
new-ex-Window$ user to understand the differences between proprietary 
(closed) O S and Free (open) O S: the difference is not only a technical 
one, but also philosophical and legal.
I can't urge to learn more about this aspect since it is the best way 
for understanding why so much problems with software who is restricted 
or not redistributed, etc.

The other point is that you have to forget to think as if you still are 
running Window$: the goal is to replace step by step each program you 
like, by another (Gpl or not) who will do the same as you did before.

Aldo.

PS: sorry if my English is not always clear!