Karen,
To clarify, I was asking what goes wrong with Linux speech in your experience, as bugs to triage. You owe nobody an explanation about your health. The 1984 remark was meant as praise for DECtalk. Charles. On Wednesday, 21 October 2026 at 18:28, Karen Lewellen <[email protected]> wrote: > Greetings everyone, > I do respect the nature of this list. > However, none of you are medical professionals...nor is the below correct. > I experience an aquired brain injury. My dectalk set up is not from 1984, > what an odd idea. > The dectalk voices have been updated long after then...ask Stephen > Hawking > Further, I do not feel I have to justify information documented from > direct exposure, years of medical testing, and the advice of practicing > doctors responsible for my care...so I am sharing the below with the list. > > > On Wed, 21 Oct 2026, Charles wrote: > > > Dear Karen, > > > > I work at Canonical on the Linux Desktop. I was very interested to read > > about your computing setup. > > I quote below you saying Linux speech would put you in the Hospital. Can > > you elaborate more on that? Were you even able to try a Linux speech system? > > I read elsewhere you run a DECtalk system. It amazes me that the speech > > synthesis from 1984 sounds better than what Linux distros in 2026 ship by > > default, if at all. > > I also work on a speech-to-text system for Ubuntu, which I hope will be a > > useful accessibility feature going forward. However, it sounds like you > > will never be able to try since your primary interface is a non-graphical > > DOS system, connected to a DECtalk? Is that right? > > > > Kind regards, > > Charles. > > > > On Wednesday, 21 October 2026 at 14:25, Karen Lewellen > > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >> Again, there will be no Linux speech of any kind on this unit. > >> such would put me in Hospital. > >> Instead, I am using ssh, from DOS, into this box. > >> > >> > >> > >> On Wed, 21 Oct 2026, didier gaumet wrote: > >> > >>> Le 21/10/2026 à 14:32, Charles Curley a écrit : > >>>> On Tue, 20 Oct 2026 23:51:56 -0400 (EDT) > >>>> Karen Lewellen <[email protected]> wrote: > >>>> > >>>>> HP Compaq dc7900 Small Form Factor Desktop > >>>>> Intel Core2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.0GHz > >>>>> 4MB DDR2 RAM > >>> [..] > >>>> Given that you won't be running a graphical user interface (GUI), you > >>>> should be fine with 4 GB. If the hardware will let you add more RAM, > >>>> you can do so at any time. > >>> > >>> Hello, > >>> > >>> I am not knowledgeable about all that but 4GB is not much and Karen's > >>> computer processor, while 64 bits so Debian 13 compatible, is old (18 > >>> years). > >>> From what I have heard, Text-To-Speech (TTS) can use AI (either a local > >>> LLM > >>> or a cloud based solution) that improves quality, but potentially at the > >>> cost > >>> of a greater need for physical resources (memory, computing power...). > >>> There is a little explanation here: > >>> https://linuxvox.com/blog/tts-linux/ > >>> > >>> I don't know what Karen uses, is currently satisfied with, and so on, but > >>> I > >>> would personally be cautious about giving Karen advices to migrate fully > >>> to > >>> Linux, because if something turns bad, that is she, not I, who risks being > >>> stuck with a temporary lack of a working PC :-) > >>> > >>> If she can be assisted, on site, by a linux-competent friend or Linux User > >>> Group, that is different :-) > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >
