Orca
Close matchFreeSame job, free, built into GNOME. Speech and braille, a different set of keyboard commands, and not installed by default on every distribution.
Your files: Narrator settings and voice choices do not transfer.
Does Windows Narrator run on Linux?
Verdict: No
No. Narrator is part of Windows and does not exist on Linux. Orca is the built-in screen reader on GNOME and fills the same role, with different keyboard commands.
Narrator is a Windows feature, not something you installed, so there is nothing to carry over. It is built into Windows 10 and Windows 11, costs nothing, offers natural-sounding voices in several languages, and drives refreshable braille displays.
Linux has the equivalent idea. Orca is the screen reader for GNOME, and on a GNOME system you switch it on with the Super and Alt and S keys together, or from Settings under Accessibility and Seeing. It speaks and it drives braille displays, with the braille side handled by a background service called BRLTTY that Orca connects to.
Two things to check rather than assume. First, Orca is not installed on every system by default. GNOME's own help says so plainly, and on a distribution that leaves it out you would need it installed before the desktop can speak, which is an unpleasant position to be in. Second, braille display support varies by model and is worth confirming against BRLTTY's own list for the display you own, not taken on trust.
If you use Narrator as your main way of using the computer rather than occasionally, the sensible order is to boot a live USB session first, check that the screen reader starts, and use the machine by ear for an hour before anything is installed. The keyboard commands are a different set and that part takes time regardless of how good the software is.
What to use instead of Windows Narrator
eSpeak NG
Different way of workingFreeThe voice Orca uses out of the box. Faster and clearer at speed than Narrator's natural voices, and noticeably more synthetic.
This doesn't have to stop you
One stubborn program doesn't have to decide the whole question. You can keep Windows on the same PC and restart into it only when you need Windows Narrator. Everything else you do can move.
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