# macosx10 vs windows and main menu

Category: Geeks r Us

## Post 1 by wonderwoman (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Monday, 01-Aug-2005 22:09:25

Hi all,
Since most of the posts about macos10 are old, thought I'd post this as a new topic. I listened to the review and demonstration of the mac os 10, and I admit, the thought of a ready made screen reader appealed to me, but I couldn't help thinking about compatibility with the programs I've been use to using, and learning a new operating system, and a different keyboard layout. For example, on the left side of the space bar, instead of the familiar windows logo key,the control key, and the alt keys, you have the control key, option, and command. There are the same keys on both sides of the keyboard. And, voice over doesn't automatically start after the system loads, the way jaws does, so you have to press command f 5. There entirely new keystrokes altogether. It was announced that there would be another demonstration of more options with voice over the next week, but main menu hasn't been updated since may 11. There doesn't seem to be much now except archives now. I unsubscribed from acbradio announce list after Jonathan Mosen resigned, because to me, acbradio seemed to be going down hill after he left. His blind line show made the site. Where else could I call in and talk about whatever was on my mind? And, when I read from someone, that you have to supply your own monitor and keyboard, that was a bit of a turn off for me then and there. Well, just my thoughts,
wonderwoman

## Post 2 by blink183 (I can't call it a day til I enter the zone BBS) on Monday, 01-Aug-2005 23:13:02

You can hear the other half of the demonstration by going to http://www.holmesgrown.com/archives/mainmenu/mm211.m3u

## Post 3 by The Shuck Fitter (My name is Liam) on Tuesday, 02-Aug-2005 16:54:14

when I had my pc built I had to supply a monitor. I mean. cmon. mac minni is 500 bucks, monitors are cheap now adays, and so are keyboards. and who here actually has jaws load when they're pc's load. I don't think pressing command f5 is such a problem. How ever, I'm waiting to see voiceover expand in functionality. There's talk of a script language being implamented and such. I do want a mac though.

## Post 4 by wonderwoman (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Tuesday, 02-Aug-2005 18:48:15

well Liam, there's the hunting around for the right monitor and keyboard, learning a different os, learning a whole set of keystrokes, and there are compatibility questions, like with programs and clients like, ivocalize, ventrillo, msn messenger, and aim, plus the players like winamp, real player and windows media player. fyi, I do have jaws to load automatically after windows loads.
wonderwoman

## Post 5 by wonderwoman (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Tuesday, 02-Aug-2005 19:13:06

I went to that link and it was exactly the same review they had on acbradio, no second half.
wonderwoman

## Post 6 by The Shuck Fitter (My name is Liam) on Wednesday, 03-Aug-2005 6:01:57

well. it seems like the mac would be fairly easy to learn. and they're will probably not be allt he apps that you're used to. I doubt you'l see people switching to mac. I think you'll see them use it as a secondary OS, but you're stupid if you're going to totally switch.

## Post 7 by wonderwoman (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Wednesday, 03-Aug-2005 19:09:27

well don't worry Liam, I'm not switching, so I guess that makes me not stupid, hah.
wonderwoman

## Post 8 by blink183 (I can't call it a day til I enter the zone BBS) on Wednesday, 03-Aug-2005 23:34:19

The screen reader works with all the applications that come with the MAC, like TextEdit, Safari and the E-makl program. In order for third party programs like MS Office to work with it, they will have to rewrite their code for Tiger. The good news is that new programs that are written for Tiger are more likely to be accessible inherently by their design.

## Post 9 by kool_turk (This site is so "educational") on Thursday, 04-Aug-2005 2:26:11

I heard Voiceover isn't all that much better than narrator.

## Post 10 by blink183 (I can't call it a day til I enter the zone BBS) on Thursday, 04-Aug-2005 4:19:19

Well Narrator can't surf the web, read E-mail, PDF and Word documents. You also can't use Narrator to do video editing in Quicktime. Come to think of that, you can't do that with any other screen reader.

## Post 11 by wonderwoman (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Thursday, 04-Aug-2005 20:02:15

well I didn't think too much of the voice I heard on the mac, it sounded like it was trying to immitate deck talk, but was doing a bad job of it.
wonderwoman

## Post 12 by Jesse (Hmm!) on Friday, 05-Aug-2005 6:42:51

See, and this is what bugs the crap out of me...Don't expect Voiceover to come out of the box being perfect! I mean, they're trying, and I applaud them for their efforts. I'm about ticked off at Microsoft just enough to get a Mac, and start gradually making the switch, maybe put my keyboard, mouse and monitor on one of those KVM switches so I can switch back and forth without having to rewire stuff every time, but Microsoft has now proclaimed themselves to be the absolute authority in operating systems. I, for one, think there needs to be a change, and companies like MS, and Freedom Scientific need their big egos popped! Go Apple! I'll support you, even if your screen reader has a few minor inconveniences! Rock on!

## Post 13 by kool_turk (This site is so "educational") on Friday, 05-Aug-2005 7:12:51

You could always switch to linux.

## Post 14 by Jesse (Hmm!) on Friday, 05-Aug-2005 9:56:38

I could, but I'm afraid support is just not robust enough for it, and a GUI has kinda spoiled me. I don't wanna go back to command line stuff that I have to memorize!

## Post 15 by blink183 (I can't call it a day til I enter the zone BBS) on Friday, 05-Aug-2005 16:05:46

I don't think V.O. has a lot of inconveniences. It doesn't have the maturity that the leading screen readers do, like navigation by HTML elements, but it can do a lot more than JAWS and Window-Eyes could do in their first release. Most of the inaccessibility problems lie on the side of the developers, not Apple, and when they release versions of their software for Tiger, they will be corrected. If you want more info about Voiceover and what programs work with it, send a blank message to vo-08-05@topdotenterprises.com.

## Post 16 by Jesse (Hmm!) on Wednesday, 10-Aug-2005 10:53:58

Microsoft's new WGA thing has officially burned me up to the point that within the next month, I'll be getting a Mac Mini, and using it for my basic computing needs! I have a legit copy of Windows, but these people need to know that they can't just do what they feel like, and institute whatever limits they feel like, and we'll take it sitting down! Go Apple!

## Post 17 by wildebrew (We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?) on Wednesday, 10-Aug-2005 11:50:14

Wait, in Microsoft's defense, I don't see that any company would react differently to people stealing their software, I'm sure Apple would do the same. And Apple tie their operating system essentially to their machines only which means there will always be a much smaller community of developers working for them so the availibility of applications for the Mac will always be less than that of the general Windows or Unix/Linux community. And I am not convinced that the move to use Intel processors will justify Apple's claim to superiority over other computers in the market. For your money a PC with Windows is still a better deal than the Mac Mini, because of the processor speed, hard drive availibility etc that you get. But I do agree that I like the fact that someone is challenging the Windows -&GT; Jaws combo for visually impaired users and I'm excited about future linux development in the area. I do not hold Microsoft as the evil corporation. They had, in fact, plans to develop their own screen reader but the screen reading companies stood up and voice strong disapproval that MS would be putting them out of business etc so Narrator is deliberately designed to be no equivalent for the screen readers. This is waht I headr whilst working for them (I believe this is not a company secret *smiles* and it's been years since I worked for them). They treated their employees well, have extremely talented people and good work ethics and I applaud them for their success but I'm happy that at least we have some alternatives at this point. Macs are good for some things like vido and music editing, they are superior to PCs thee, I think PCs re better for general things such as email, net, chatting, office type of products etc and Linux/Unix has a lot of very cool scheduling and task matching capabilities and are better to program. I think all three O.S.'s have some significant strengths and it's not a matterof one beeing better than the other like people make them out to be.
cheers
-B

## Post 18 by wonderwoman (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Wednesday, 10-Aug-2005 19:09:16

I'm sure you and wildbrew have good strong points Kragil, on the one hand, I understand your feeling and point, but I think it may be a matter of what you want to do, or use to doing. I've been on lots of chat programs and the few sites that are around, audio tips, for the people, and acbradios' our place, and I never ran in to anyone who was using a mac at the time. As for voice over, I guess it doesn't sound any worse than eloquence. I suppose if you don't use programs and clients like chatter box, ivocalize and ventrilo to chat, maybe for some people, mac os might be fair.
wonderwoman