Month: September 2012

Starting with Ubuntu 12.10 there will be no more LiveCD. The reason is simple, there are increasing the size of the disc image from 700MB to 800MB. CDs can only hold a maximum of 700MB. This means that Ubuntu 12.10 and following will only be available on a DVD. This will again leave those with older computers in the dust, for a number of them can only burn CDs. I am sure many of the Ubuntu flavors will stay on CD, such as Lubuntu and Xubuntu.

The best program I have found for a text-to-speach program is Gespeaker. From the Ubuntu Software Center install gespeaker-mbrola-en. This package will install both Gespeaker and mbrola with English language voices.

Once the package has installed, open up Gespeaker. In Ubuntu 10.04 it will be found under Applications, Sound & Video. Once it is opened you should change the Language setting to: english-mb-en1. It is the best sounding, at least to my ears. The Pitch should be 50, Volume 100, speed 160, and Delay 0. You can adjust these yourself.

To play a text either copy and paste in the window, or you can click Open and select a text file (.txt). Then just press Play. The program allows you to save the audio in a wav file. It also allows you to save the text you typed into the window. There is even a plugin to use it with Empathy or Pidgin. It is a great little program.

Links
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/TextToSpeech
http://code.google.com/p/gespeaker/

As of September, 2012 I am no longer using Mint because of some issues. I could not get Evolution to open links in Chrome. I could not get MSFONTS to work in Mint. This is just two of a number of small “paper cuts.” I finally went back to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. It is good till April 2913. Then I may be forced to choose.

It should be no surprise to readers of my blog of my great dislike of the Unity desktop. I still believe the best Linux desktop was Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx. I was using Mint for a while, but went back to Lucid.

Now there is news that there will be a new spin, a GNOME version of Ubuntu called GNOMEbuntu. At least this spin will not include the Unity desktop. That is a plus. Gnomebuntu aims to provide as much of a “vanilla” GNOME experience as possible whilst also keeping various elements from Ubuntu. It will be worth keeping an eye on it.

UPDATE
The Ubuntu GNOME Remix is currently in Beta with a stable release expected at the same time as Ubuntu 12.10. It seems that the naming may be an issue, there are rumors that the GNOME project doesn’t want them to use GNOME as part of the name. That means that GNOMEbuntu would not be accepted. Right now its just being called UbuntuGNOME.

LINKS
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGNOME/
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/08/gnome-flavoured-ubuntu-spin-coming-october-18th
http://gnomebuntu.org/