Installing Linux

[Tony Baechler]

The showrt answer is a definite yes.  At the risk of repeating what others 
have said, here are a few options.  First, if you don't mind testing 
software, download the latest beta of Debian Wheezy.  The daily builds are 
broken and won't work.  Another option is Vinux.  I personally don't like it 
due to crashes and being rather behind in what it offers, but it should be 
fairly stable and should come up talking.  Finally, look at Knoppix Adriane. 
  It comes up talking also and has a nice menu which might be easier for 
you.  Vinux and Knoppix are live CDs, meaning that you don't actually have 
to install anything but you can still try them on your system.  All have 
32-bit flavors.  Here are links:

http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
http://www.vinuxproject.org/
http://www.knoppix.org/

Also note that the CDs are pretty big downloads, but with Wheezy, you can 
download a minimal netinst CD if you have a working network connection 
detected by the installer.  If you only have wireless, you might run into 
problems, so you might want to download and burn the first CD or DVD. 
Actually, on 32-bit, you can't download a DVD image because it's over 4 GB. 
  If you try Knoppix, make sure to download the special Adriane CD.  It will 
have Adriane at the beginning of the filename.  If you download Debian 
Wheezy, make sure to get a CD with the graphical installer.  The speech 
installer actually uses text, but it's only included on the CDs with the 
graphical installer.  Yes, it sounds confusing.  Once you boot the Wheezy 
CD, press "s" and Enter and speech should come up in a few minutes.  You 
will still need sighted help if your BIOS doesn't boot from CD as the first 
boot device.  There isn't a way around that, unfortunately.  Most notebooks 
I've seen don't boot the CD first.

Finally, I offer a $99 per year email-based support service for people just 
getting started with Linux or who already know the basics but want help with 
specific tasks.  Please contact me off list if interested.

On 3/6/2013 5:41 AM, Kevin wrote:
> Hello, I have been following this conversation, and seeing people singing
> the praises of linux.  I have been thinking about trying out linux, but I
> can not find a distro that has a talking installer that works with a
> software synth.  I have a 32 bit laptop with no access to a hardware synth.
> I also do not have someone sighted who could help me.  Is there a way for me
> to install linux without sighted assistance and no hardware synth?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blinux-list-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:blinux-list-bounces at redhat.com]
> On Behalf Of Jason White
> Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2013 6:01 PM
> To: Blinux-list at redhat.com
> Subject: Re: some bees nest stirring, was just how much can you do with?
>
> Tim Chase<blinux-list at redhat.com>  wrote:
>
>> Just for the record, DOS has loadable drivers to make that memory
>> above 1 meg accessible to other programs.  Blowing the cobwebs off
>> those corners of my mind, I seem to recall loading the EMM386.SYS
>> driver to do as much.
>
> That's right, and as I remember, you could buy and install Qemm to squeeze
> the
> most out of your lower 640KB of memory. There were problems with memory
> management, especially in loading device drivers, and it was all rather
> messy.
>
> I'm glad that DOS is a distant memory for me now. If there are people who
> still find it useful, that's fine, but Linux is just so much better.
>
>
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-- 
Have a good day,
Tony Baechler
tony at baechler.net