# jfw 6.0 has been released!

Category: Geeks r Us

## Post 1 by louiano (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Saturday, 18-Dec-2004 12:26:20

Hi, as fc has been working quietly in the most stable screen reader, its now here. The next generation of the popular jfw screen reader is now here! check it out at
http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_news/current_newsletter.asp

## Post 2 by louiano (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Saturday, 18-Dec-2004 12:27:58

lol I did type is now here 2 times ha ha

## Post 3 by blink183 (I can't call it a day til I enter the zone BBS) on Saturday, 18-Dec-2004 16:33:13

Yeah, the most stable screen reader, HA! Look how many features this version borrowed from Window-Eyes. Can we count them?
Error-reporting (they should have been doing this YEARS ago!)
Reading progress bars
Renaming form fields in Word (just introduced in the WE beta)
Access to Citrix Metaframe and Terminal Services
Other features which currently escape my memory
Why didn't FS release a public beta for this version? Most of the new features are what I consider to be "bloatware," providing little actual improved functionality. So long as JAWS continues to run on scripts, it wil NEVER be the most stable screen reader in the industry.

## Post 4 by smudge (the Zone BBS remains forever my home page) on Saturday, 18-Dec-2004 18:32:23

and the progress bars stop working on my pc within four web pages

## Post 5 by Jesse (Hmm!) on Saturday, 18-Dec-2004 21:21:31

Let's not forget, Freedom Science-fiction's charging for their remote desktop and Citrix access, and with Wineyes, it comes out of the box, and you don't have to pay! What gives?

## Post 6 by sparkie (the hilljack) on Saturday, 18-Dec-2004 21:47:43

In my oppinion it seems as fs doesn't test their products thoroughly upon release and why I say this is because it still contains lots of bugs, but let's be thankful that we do have a screen reader other then wineyes as we may not have a screen reader at all.
Troy

## Post 7 by Jesse (Hmm!) on Saturday, 18-Dec-2004 23:00:49

See? Unfortunately, it is that mentality which gives FS leverage to do as they please. They have the market in screen readers, and they know it. Since most students receive Jaws from their state, or educational institution, rather than WinEyes, they're used to Jaws, and switching over is hard. However, if we were to make a list of prose and cons to each screen reader, I believe WinEyes would probably come out on top. P.S. I am a Jaws user, but WinEyes is definitely more stable, and has a better feature set for less money!

## Post 8 by Jess227 on Sunday, 19-Dec-2004 0:37:25

I will never upgrade my jaws on pacmate. On my pacmate I have a very early version of jaws. And not to mention if you're gonna give people a pacmate or a computer with Jaws running at least have a mannual on disk.

## Post 9 by DixieGirl (I can't call it a day til I enter the zone BBS) on Sunday, 19-Dec-2004 11:49:04

fs is a monoply, yes. and i am a jfw user. i am now running jfw six, and like it so far. i am not one who likes change (in most cases anyway) lol, so I would probably not switch to Windows Eyes. Each to his/her own, though. :)
In Him,
Dixie

## Post 10 by ItsAConspiraZ (This site is so "educational") on Sunday, 19-Dec-2004 18:32:04

Here's my opiniion concerning Jaws and Freedom Scientific. Ever since Jaws 4.5 (I think) or maybe 5.0 Jaws has been suffering from too many useless features. 4.5 was actually alright now that I think of it, I don't remember what features were added on to it but whatever. 4.01 was necessary because XP had just been released and 4.02 was a nice little bug release. 5.0 however just put the nail in it for me... speech and sounds manager? What the hell? I really haven't seen this many useless features before, now pardon me if I am wrong but who really needs or wants a certain sound to play whenever a word is encountered, or all those crazy settings with the reading of lines and what not? It's just silly. I was also surprised to hear that 6.0 was coming out so soon, after 5.1 had been released... hell, Henter-Joyce was working on 3.x all the way up until FS took over, and we have seen three version changes in the last... four years, I think. I haven't upgraded since 5.0 so this may have been fixed but there are many issues with JAWS slowing down or forgetting to change voices it's not funny, which it shouldn't be. New versions are supposed to squash old bugs, not introduce new ones, much less slow down the screen reader considerably. 3.7 is really the last release that has seen revolutionary changes concerining the Virtual Cursor (Though I think that was added in 3.31) and other fixes... and now FS is trying desperately to add in new features in order to continue to sell a product, which I can't really accuse them for, I mean everyone needs to make money but, Window Eyes seems to be the real pioneer now from what I hear on this board, plus they were the ones who invented the Video Chaining thing or whatever... so I don't know really, those are my rather disjointed (and probably misspelt) thoughts.
James

## Post 11 by Jesse (Hmm!) on Monday, 20-Dec-2004 15:31:56

Right on! I've never used that ridiculous speech and sounds manager thingy! The one neat feature they added somewhere around 4.5 were quick keys.

## Post 12 by the crashing machine (200) on Monday, 20-Dec-2004 19:34:52

I agree! I only like the web rent a crowd skeem in 5.0, or 5.1, but I used speech and sounds mannager and it slowed it down so that I felt like I was using a hardware speech synth instead of a software one.

## Post 13 by blink183 (I can't call it a day til I enter the zone BBS) on Wednesday, 22-Dec-2004 18:15:36

Well I use both screen readers, and while I think they both have their strengths and have both been pioneering in their own ways, I disagree with a lot of FS's philosophies and practices. I would say give your money to GW (micro, that is) because they are the little guy with the small programming staff that needs it. You will be justly rewarded with superb technical support. FS has the bigger programming staff, so they're always going to be able to cram more features into their product. But frankly, I want a screen reader to read the screen. That's what I expect of it. When it doesn't do so, then something has to be done on either of the developer's sides. JFW is my primary screen reader because it gives me more access to what I need, but WE will read the screen to me when JFW doesn't. I also find this new daisy thing they're doing to be incredibly annoying. Why should I have to use Daisy software just to read their training materials? I think they should offer these in multiple formats.

## Post 14 by sparkie (the hilljack) on Wednesday, 22-Dec-2004 20:00:27

Now that brings me to a point. I think it should be optional rather you want to install or not install the daisy reader demo. If I don't want it then I should be given the choice not to.
Troy

## Post 15 by ItsAConspiraZ (This site is so "educational") on Wednesday, 22-Dec-2004 22:43:12

Personally about the daisy thing I don't understand why it exists, I mean it's basically PDF for the blind, except with JAWS and WInEYES I beliebe also you can access those so why daisy? Yeah I guess they switched the books to Daisy so that they could have a way to sort of advertise FSReader with JAWS, that's a good way to get a new product out there is to bundle it with another so people know about it already, if they just announced it on it's own not as many people would even hear about it.
James
James

## Post 16 by louiano (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Thursday, 23-Dec-2004 0:05:43

yeah I think fs is a bunch of angry moneymakers that just sell a product, ading silly features. I never used the speech and sound manager but I did like the new sound file feature when jfw reads a word. In other words, what is the chain display manager for? jfw sometimes brings stuff you never use or know that came with your package, they just sell a product because they want to be the first ones. I should not have paste the adverticement... lol. Is it gonig to be up to 10.0 or something? when something more stable comes out just tell me... well. But window eyes, most of the time I add something to its dictionaries and files and it doesn't do anything. And it seems every once your computer is restarted it erases and restores the changes you made to the voce, dictionaries, ETC.

## Post 17 by Jesse (Hmm!) on Thursday, 23-Dec-2004 6:10:59

Lou, you have to save the dictionary on the file menu of Window-Eyes in order for it to stay after you restart. Where Jaws prompts you each time, Window-Eyes doesn't assume anything, which is kinda a nice feature. I agree with Sam though. Jaws is my primary, WE is my backup, but WE will just read the screen with no questions asked out of the box, and Jaws is more...well, you have to know what you want to get at.

## Post 18 by Leafs Fan (I'll have the last word, thank you!) on Thursday, 23-Dec-2004 12:20:35

Has anyone noticed more stability in graphics-heavy Web sites, that was promised in version 6.0? The features and enhancements in 6 look good, but I do agree with you guys in the reading schemes and some of the fancy stuff that has recently been introduced. For me, it has no use whatsoever.

## Post 19 by louiano (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Thursday, 23-Dec-2004 13:06:58

hmm, I do save them in the file menu, but lets say after restarting or logging on and off it doesn't save anything and I have to apply it again to work! even the defined keystroke don't work after a restart even when I save them

## Post 20 by Caitlin (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Thursday, 23-Dec-2004 13:44:33

I have used both programs and I like Window-Eyes better; the program itself always seems to be a step ahead of Jaws in most cases, and the Tech Support is superb. But yeah I see how Jaws is good too lol. But I've made my choice. I'll use both, and I'm not dissing either of them, I just am saying what I think? Lol? Caitlin

## Post 21 by SingerOfSongs (Heresy and apostasy is how progress is made.) on Monday, 03-Jan-2005 12:40:08

Hmm, I have always preferred jaws over window eyes, though I will admit to having less experience with WE. It is all personal preference. Part of my problem is that when I used win eyes back in the bad early days and compaired to jaws, it was crap. However, I keep hearing more and more people liking it. Perhapse I'll go grab a copy and try it again. I did try using it for a short while not all that long ago, and one thing that I could not figure out was how to surf the web using it. I mean, with jaws you can read it just like a page of text, but if you could do that with win eyes, I sure couldn't figure out how in my brief use.

## Post 22 by Twinklestar09 (I've now got the bronze prolific poster award! now going for the silver award!) on Monday, 03-Jan-2005 13:04:14

Aww man! I had had a free demo copy of Window Eyes a few years ago. Now I wish I could have kept it. I'm a JAWS user and have really never used Window Eyes, but now I wish I could try it out.
Leilani

## Post 23 by blink183 (I can't call it a day til I enter the zone BBS) on Tuesday, 04-Jan-2005 17:44:39

Well the ironic thing is that Window-Eyes was the first screen reader to introduce the concept of a virtual cursor for surfing the web, so FS borrowed that idea from them. Some JFW commands for web surfing don't work on WE, but you basically surf the web the same way. The automatic page reading works a little different, though.
And one more feature JFW stole from WE that I forgot to mention in my list earlier: reading 32-bit command lines (in Windows 2000/xp with the cmd.exe program). I called FS about upgrading from JFW 5 to 6. It will cost me $200. It will cost me $75 to upgrade from WE 4.5 to 5.0. Make up your own mind on that one.

## Post 24 by blink183 (I can't call it a day til I enter the zone BBS) on Tuesday, 18-Jan-2005 14:30:11

Oh, and let's not forget all the Braille features Jaws 6 ripped off of Window-Eyes, such as quick messages which flash tool tips, balloons, etc. I think they're trying to steal the Window-Eyes market back over by incorporating all the features that make up the reasons why people still love and use Window-Eyes. Of course, the biggest feature they're going to have to steal in order to be as competitive is responsive and helpful tech support.

## Post 25 by Jesse (Hmm!) on Wednesday, 19-Jan-2005 7:33:20

If Freedom Scientific really is hell bent on keeping a professional/home version of their software, then the versions shouls be different from each other! In otherwords, the pro version should come stock with RDP and Citrix, but the standard version should work across all Windows platforms just the same. The only thing that's free about Freedom Scientific is that once you're finished with them, you're free of a lot of money you once had!

## Post 26 by Witchcraft (Account disabled) on Wednesday, 19-Jan-2005 8:14:43

I haven't tried Window Eyes since January of something like 2000? I didn't like it then, and haven't tried it again since. LOL. I don't even remember the version number. I had nothing but problems, and then I switched to Jaws 3.2 and was able to do all kinds of things I could not have done before, but I do realize this may have changed, and I'm seriously considering trying it again...As far as Freedom Scientific, what is this crap about one method running out on exactly March 15? Why release it in that version at all if they're just going to take it away? Oh, I realize they're sending out the ILM's, however, from what I understand, and if anyone has a correction I'm welcoming it...But, the ILM's can not be replaced unless you pay Freedom Scientific too? Which to me means, ok, say my comp crashes, and I need to reload it. Previously I would have simply moved the key back to the floppy, but now I'll lose my key and have to get it replaced...

## Post 27 by Caitlin (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Thursday, 20-Jan-2005 0:41:21

Aaaand, Window-Eyes 5.0 is now released! Woopoof to that!