Re: linux with sighted help?

[Gary Wynn <garywynn sugarbeet ultimanet com>]

Ultimately, it is never the creators of a new technology or system that have
the final say on where it may or should go. That is perhaps for the best, for
as visionary as they may be, the creations they provide humanity must become
the systems of humanity in order to survive and thrive.  Thus it was with the
Apple. Jobs and Wazniak were visionary indeed in creating the first computer
for the people, but the computer could not survive within the confines of
the vision they had for it.  The Apple II began as an open system, but failed
to remain that way.

Once again, the world has been given an open system with Linux, and the
survival of Linux is much like the survival of freedom itself--it will depend
far more on posterity, those who follow, that it will those who gave it.  If
Linux is to grow, if Linux is to survive as a premier system of computers
tomorrow, it must become more human.

The very essence of "human" is to provide a computer interface that embraces
the philosophy of augmenting all of human activities, and not just confining
it self to the efficient processing of business applications as computers
have done for most of the decades since their conception.

Already responsible parties such as the Media Lab at MIT, are interested in
seeing a speech capability added to Linux so that the age of wearable
computing can augment human endeavors in all aspects of life.

As many users and creators of Linux applications as there have been, and as
capable as they have proven themselves, they and their efforts will be in the
minority when viewed from the future of the vast numbers of users and
creators who will follow in the next 30 years.

Will speech be added to the Linux kernel?  The question isn't "will" but
"when".  Speech is the most fundamental of human capabilities, and one of the
few shared through the world in all cultures--it is a defining characteristic
of the species, as recent work in anthropology seems to show.  A new study
indicates that speech can only have evolved in bipedal mammals, as only
bipedal mammals could have evolved the breath control for it.  Fossil studies
tend to confirm the work.

At the time the Linux kernel evolved, the 386 with 8mb RAM, a speed of 33mhz,
and a 100mb hard drive represented the height of PC power for $2k.  
Today, $1K can buy a 500mhz machine with a 64 bit processor, 64mb of RAM, and 
more than 10GB of hard drive.  Linux, if it is to remain a free and open system,
will grow to fill the capacity of future machines which will no doubt dwarf
the best buys of today.  While Linux grows in the variety and depth of its
use, it will have to grow also in its ability to provide the most usable and
friendly of interfaces to people, for it is people who will decide the
survival of Linux.

Gary


Hans Writes:
> 
> The request to 'put  speech into the kernel' came up here before. 
> Again it may be interesting to read what people ,who are working on
> the kernel are saying about such design decisions.
> 
> The following stuff is from "Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source
> Revolution". Linus Torvalds explains some of the key architectural
> decisions he made in bringing the Linux kernel to its present state.
> 
> [begin citation]
> Keeping the kernel healthy
> 
> With a monolithic kernel such as the Linux kernel, it's important
> to be very cautious about allowing new code and new features into
> the kernel. These decisions can affect a number of things later on
> in the development cycle beyond the core kernel work.
> 
> The first very basic rule is to avoid interfaces. If someone wants
> to add something that involves a new system interface you need to be
> exceptionally careful. Once you give an interface to users they will
> start coding to it and once somebody starts coding to it you are stuck
> with it. Do you want to support the exact same interface for the
> rest of your system's life?
> 
> Other code is not so problematic. If it doesn't have an interface,
> say a disk driver, there isn't much to think about; you can just add
> a new disk driver with little risk. If Linux didn't have that driver
> before, adding it doesn't hurt anyone already using Linux,
> and opens Linux to some new users. 
> [omitted...]
> [end citation]
> 
> The complete article is available online at
> http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-1999-03/lw-03-opensources.html
> 
> Please check the Blinux mailing list archive for that discussion about
> speech into kernel.
> 
> Seaching blinux list for 'speech;kernel' will show up 11 postings.
> Searching in blinux-develop will give you even 17 matches.
> 
> Enjoy!
> --Hans
> 
> On Thu, 2 Dec 1999, Tommy Moore wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Yeah, I agree with ya there Buddy, but as you can tell most of the people
> > on the list here are in to emacs speak which doesn't read the stuff that
> > really matters. Heh. I can't wait for the day that someone compiles a
> > kernel and can't figure out why their system didn't boot because the
> > speech program doesn't come up til after the user has logged in. I hate
> > this concept enough with windows. I feel that if possible the computer
> > should speak from start to finish and the way that emacs speak and windows
> > screen readers do it is a half way job. Anyways. I better stop rambling
> > before someone gets upset. heh.
> > 
> > See ya laters!
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
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