Thanks for all the information, folks, it really helps. I already found out
omnipage will work on the mac which is GREAT since I use it to scan my books
for school (i need a high quality ocr interface for that because I dont want to
edit anything, just scan, paste it all in one file and go). Yes windows in
vmware or even ubuntu would be a good thing i guess. I amnot sure how much I
would trust multiboot but if it works well in vmware and doesnt slow os x I
might try that.
Thanks again!
Greetings, Anouk,
----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Blouch
To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com
Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 5:00 PM
Subject: Re: introduction/noob questions(longish)
To clarify on a couple of your questions:
2.
Networking stuff is pretty standardized now days so your Mac will play well
on most any wireless or wired network.
3.
Some printers and scanners are well supported and some are not. Depends on
the model.
4.
Yes, Voiceover can be activated after booting off the OSX installer DVD. In
other words, you can do a from the ground up wipe and reinstall without sighted
assistance. I suspect that was the gist of your question and not so much about
how to upgrade the hard drive.
6.
OSX is unix underneath but Apple's GUI and frameworks running on top. So
while ORCA could be ported to the mac it would be a substantial bit of
work to get it hooked into all the Apple stuff. If there wasn't a good screen
reader built-in somebody might undertake the effort but it's probably not worth
it. Diehard unix folks port all kinds of stuff to the mac. MacPorts has around
6000 packages in its library so if you're into that kind of thing take a poke
at macports.org.
While you didn't ask, note that all macs made since 2006 run on Intel
processors so there is a thriving industry in virtual machines for the Mac. In
other words you can either do a multi-boot setup for Windows/Mac or run Windows
in a window on your mac. Turns out the Mac actually is one of the faster (some
say the fastest) windows laptop on the market. Most folks seem to like the
VMWare Fusion route which puts Windows(or linux or whatever) in a window which
works fairly well. It makes for a nice 'safety net' as you get more comfortable
on the Mac.
CB
a radix wrote:
Hello, I am very new to apple in general (although I did use an ipod
shuffle and a rockboxed 5.5g imod i nthe past). I am a 24-year old blind law
student from the Netherlands and have been using computers from a very young
age mostly with dos, windows and sometimes ubuntu. Recently I became interested
in macbook pro because I am an audiophile and the macbooks are one of the few
powerful laptops I know that have optical audio output. But of course I was
also interested in trying os x since I had read the voicover page (although not
the manual).
I went to a local apple store yesterda and was rather disppointed that I
could not seem to use things intuitively as I had thought so I mailed apple
accessibility who pointed me to the manual and this page. Aside from the fact
that I thought apple voicover would not be usable (and so neither os x) by a
blind person right out of the box (I am rather independand and besides no one
in my vicinity knows anything about apple) I was concerned that the
screenreader was not made by a professional screenreader manufacturer and was
built-in into os x (after all narrator is not that great although it is
functional) I was also concerned by the lack of scriptability or map files to
make unaccessible applications accessible. In short I thought it would be a
second Narrator. Also despite my googling I could not finda user community for
vo, no one in nl seems to use it.
So I will be reading the manual asap but a few quick questions:
1. does omnipage pro work on the mac/is it accessible?
2. I guess it would be able to use my linksys route ron the mac?
3. hp scanners/printers, are they supported?
4. Is it possible to install mac os x (or reinstall it sinc eI guess it
always comes preinstalled but you might want to install a bigger hd for
example) as a blind person? (this is possible with both ubuntu and windows xp).
5. How is braille support with voiceover? I dont mean the displays
themselves i know mine will work but the amount of details shown versus spech.
I am a die-hard braille user.
6. Since os x is unix based, I wonder if ORCA (the screenreader for linux,
although it work sunder gnome) will ever be ported?
Well, I guess that is it for now, although I am sure I will think about
more soon.
Thanks in advance,
Greetings, Anouk,
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