Is Linux a desktop operating system?

[Eric S. Johansson]

Paul M. Bucalo wrote:
> 
> Hmmm...this may help:
> 
> http://www.treepad.com/
> 
> The free version for Linux is at:
> 
> http://www.treepad.com/linux/treepadlite/
> 
> I have used this free-form database for some time on Linux and Windows.
> The free version is quite limited, a little slower on Linux than
> Windows, not as complex or robust as askSam, but it does an adequate job
> of keeping bits of information in organized categories. I think as a
> writer's aide, it's pretty good...and it's FREE. :0) If you try it and
> like it, the Pro version might be the better choice for professional
> writing.

it does look interesting.  I will need to look at it more closely and 
compare it to some of the other writing tools i'm looking at.

> Another area, to be sure, that needs someone(s) with experience to
> produce a better answer in Linux. 

I spoke recently at a conference on Linux and speech recognition.  There 
are two or three alternatives that might be good platforms for large 
vocabulary continuous speech recognition (i.e. what you need for 
dictating text).  The problem is, it's going to be something on the 
order of $4-5 million to get close to being a full product.  it would 
only cost a couple million dollars if we produced something akin to open 
source beta quality if we use something like the sphinx 4 engine.  The 
hard part is the interface with applications so that you can perform 
certain operations on text buffers and make corrections and replacements.

this kind of funding will not happen with the tipjar.  On the other 
hand, what may be tip jar possible is developing a bridge between speech 
recognition on Windows to client interface code on Linux.  That simply 
needs assistance in the form of programmers whose hands work.  The 
architectural model is that you run speech recognition on Windows under 
some form of virtual machine (i.e. VMware, or post Vanderpool xen ) but 
focus all your dictation results on to the Linux virtual machine.

obviously, it's a little more complex than that but that's the rough 
idea.  Like I said, all the need is people with hands that work and a 
willingness to listen to former programmers whose hands no longer work 
but know what they need.  we even have a nonprofit to handle funding and 
organizational issues.  www.ossri.org   full disclosure: I am a founder 
and co-CTO.

> I doubt that Wine will provide any help in running NaturallySpeaking any
> time in the near future. There's some pressure on them from M$ for
> emulating their O/S without licensing. If you look at the progress they
> have made in the past year or so, in comparison to Crossover, for
> instance, they appear to be almost at a halt. It's probably going to be
> a commercial manipulation of Wine that will allow us to run the Windows
> as we need to stick with, not Wine, per se.

that's fine by me.  Again, if we can get the funding and make it 
possible for handicappedit possible for speech recognition dependent 
users to leave windows behind, then it a win.

> I have had some luck with Crossover in running Win apps not listed as
> approved. One app that if it could run in Crossover would make my life
> bliss is Maximizer. It's not a problem getting the  app to install, but
> in getting the btrieve front-end to speak to the Pervasive SQL database
> back-end using ODBC. <sigh> Oh, well...

with NaturallySpeaking, it's the opposite problem.  We can't get past 
the installer.

---eric