Category: Geeks r Us
Hi all,
I'm starting to plan for next year, when I head off to college. And I'd like to know: for someone is going to major in software engineering, should I stay with my Windows laptop (Dell Latitude E6500, 3 years old, 240 GB HDD, 3 GB RAM) or switch to a MacBook Pro? I've already got an iPhone 4S, and am loving it, in case that matters.
Thanks,
Tyler
With Windows 8 comeing out soon that might be something to put into the considerations as well. Do you plann on keeping your puter for a while longer?
One of the other things I'm thinking is that with Windows, you can get a decent system for about $500, but then you have to pay another $800 to $1,000 for the screen reader. On the Mac, it's built into the OS.
The developements in narrator for windows 8 are well worth watching. I have already seen changes from the developer preview to the consumer preview and the os is not due out until the end of the year giving them much time to work on it. It functions similar to voiceover using object navigation and interacting with objects say a text box to read the information. The voices are quite good. Things to think about for sure.
What has prompted all these changes in Narrator? I've always had bad experiences with it, and I've always felt like it can't really be called a screen reader, just a glorified TTS tool.
Well, if Narrator is going to work as well as some people say it is, I hope they implement a touch feature for it, because if they don't, Apple's VoiceOver can squash Narrator in a heartbeat as far as that goes.
Here are my suggestions, and I have seen them work for blind and sighted:
Get someone to cought it up for you, you're young and that is what us working stiffs do best, cough it up for the younger generation to get what they need.
Get a mac and VMWare Fusion. Then get Windows 7 and/or 8 and you have a working environment to operate a developer and test bed. One of the most frustrating and difficult things for blind IT people and developers has always been the lack of speech in a given scenario, usually when you need it most, and most nontechnical sighted people have trouble dealing with similar blue screens or errors anyway, let alone getting them to accurately read the information and stay with you until you get restored functionality.
This is where a really good Mac will benefit you and I only wish I had had such tools when I was just starting out. A really good mac can run Virtual Windows plus JAWS or the reader of your choice, certainly NVDA. and yes Narrator will support the touch interface for the metrosexual apps at least, if not more.
On your mac you also have a linux terminal something that most mac people don't talk about and I don't know how well it works with the VoiceOver seeing as I personally do not have one. But on the rare instance where I've done some quick analysis over the phone with someone sighted on their mac, terminal did everything I wanted, a straight BASH it looked like. I'm sure the UI tools probably existed but I don't know what cutesy footie names Apple gave them so it was just quicker.
Anyway people are going to trust you as a developer and / or an I.T. professional and we do not have the same luxuries other professions do when they talk about needing someone sighted, or what others should do for them about their computer. Remeber you're the one that will be doing for other people, so you really need the tools that will make you a man and able to manage situations on the fly. Trust me it's infinitely more difficult using an OS that boots without speech, not real often but when it happens it's never a good time.
If your Virtual Windows corrupts, you can use your mac to put back a prior version. Get the best Mac hardware you can afford, limit the number of dashboard widgets you're running and dock items to, what used to be under Control Panels Extensions in the old days of the mac. You want Windows to have what it needs resource-wise, but you're letting a hybrid Linux kernel manage things at a hardware level which is massively convenient.
I've been unpopular with both Mac and Windows people for these suggestions but honestly I would tell someone sighted this same advice, minuss the VoiceOver, and recently heard from an intern who did what I said and was able to easily rescue his OS by restoring an image (far better than System Restore) precisely because of it.
Remember no matter what them institution people tell you, if you are going into I.T. or Software Development you immediately take on all responsibility for your own support and maintenance as a blind user, very different from the way other professions who are blind talk about this. Not saying it's fair or unfair, just telling you the way it actually is. More than anything you want to be perceived as competent and capable. when someone has to read the screen for you when speech dies, they are less likely to fully rely on you later when they need to. And now you can have a working environment using a Mac as the base and a Virtual Windows with your JAWS or whatever reader you use, and you will never be in a situation where you are completely stuck.
It only takes one incident requiring sighted help for people to lose massive confidence in you, even if they had it immensely for years before. I believe the reason is they are not very confident when things go wrong with their systems anyway, and they look to us, you and me and people like us, to be that confidence and get them rolling again. It's not their fault, it's just instinct, man. Sort of like when an animal smells fear: they really can't help their response.
And you can kick-start your career and live without any of that. You want to be on top of your game, and now having a Mac plus virtual Windows plus a Windows reader will let you do that on so many levels. You're wanting to embark on a career where anything less than the top of your game, and total competence, just won't fly.
I agree, get a mac and run windows in a virtual environment on it. You can go over to www.blindcooltech.com and take a listen to Mike Arrigo's podcasts on the mac and that will give you loads of information. If you are a windows user be aware that lion is completely different from windows and there is a learning curve. Also, with the use of the track pad, such as on the Iphone, things are going to take some getting used to. Good luck.
Macs can read the bootup screen? that's the one thing that I took away from the post above Dana.
I've already got an iPhone 4S, so I'm used to the trackpad/touchscreen thing.
oh, yes, you can install the operating system from scratch completely independently as voiceover speaks right from the get-go. no need for sighted help. the macintosh operating system is much more stable than windows as well so it's unlikely that you will need to reinstall at all. there is no bios to deal with.
I think the mac. is a great computer. yay:
Yes you can manage the entire system yourself, a must have for any I.T. and software professional. Again, I stress, we do *not* have the luxury of talking about accessible this or that, or saying help me like other professions do. We are the ones who do the helping, so you gotta be able to manage things completely by yourself, or those who depend upon you will instinctively react the way their lower life-form counterparts do when they smell fear.
And a Mac is far better than the ancient days of a ZIP drive, a bootable floppy with Guest, and a hardware synthesizer. In other words, you can get a mac and run Virtual Windows, or you can do the I.T. equivalent of a rag for a gas cap.
i'd personally go with the mac where you can go with a vm, or even bootcamp if you have too dependingon how your tools react. i've heard of some programs that won't work in a vm state but with bootcamp you have all the mac's power at your fingertips still.
I would go with the pack.
I love to use it and I am glad that can use some thing other then windows.
Well, apparently you don't have autocorrect enabled. well, then again, it may not have picked up on that typo. hahaha.
Agreeing with bootcamp. I'd rather devote all resources to the operating system then splitting them down the middle. Also, I've seen less problems with key conflicts and other issues when running bootcamp.