All I have to say is that Mac is much much more stable than Windows with a screen reader. If things go wrong, I rarely feel I'm out of control. I am very rarely left in the middle of doing something without speech whereas on Windows it was and still is a frequent occurrence. I feel much more in control on my Mac.
Andrew On 1 Apr 2014, at 20:21, Kristeen Hughes <khwi...@gmail.com> wrote: > Jenine, I can basically echo what you say. I was a windows user from the > windows 95 os. In fact, I worked for Microsoft for three years and so had to > believe in something that provided me with my bread and butter, and of > course, chocolate. (grin) However, I could crash any windows system with > great ease. Some of it is the OS itself, which, although it is better in > versions 7 and 8, still has more crashing issues than Mac. Some of it, > probably most of it, is due to the fact the the screen reading software is > separate from the os. this has always caused instability and i don't see that > changing any time soon. > > When it comes to iOS, there's no contest in my oppinion. Talks and Mobile > speaks and anything else is just so much more fickle than is the iOS. I, and > lots of people i know, struggled constantly with crashes and lock-ups and > having to turn the phone on and off a great number of times even in a day. > > I am very happy with both mac os and ios platforms andwould not want to give > them up. > > . on apr 1, 2014, at 2:26 pm, jenine stanley <dragonwalke...@gmail.com> wrote: > > this is an interesting question. from just an average user point of view, i > have been using my macbook pro since early february and use a windows laptop > for work. they literally sit side by side on my desk. > > i had used the iphone since 2011 so was sort of familiar with how voiceover > works and love it on the ios platform that said, it's very different on the > mac or os side. > > speaking first to stability, i managed to crash the mbp twice in the first > week but literally have not made the speech stop since then. has my mbp > slowed down or acted strangely a few times without explanation? yes, but it's > come back to its original performance soon after these fits. > > my windows machine frequently hangs up both in the operating system in > general and because of screen reader/video issues. outlook is really bad > about this and i usually have to reboot at least once a day. yes, i maintain > my windows machine well with weekly cleaning and such but ... > > the one thing that you will find difficult at first but which, if you > continue to plug away at it will soon become second nature, is the whole > concept of interacting with things. i hated it at first and still am not fond > of it. unlike the ios realm, you have to take an extra step to access some > things using voice over. once you get used to it though and combine quick nav > with the regular vo operation, and ask this list a ton of stupid questions, > :) you'll be fine. > > i really like the variety of quality voices available with vo too. it's fast > and responsive. i'm sold. be sure though to give yourself some time and be > patient. beprepared to read over and over any and all instructions, podcasts > and other things about switching, commands and apps. > jenine stanley > dragonwalke...@gmail.com > > > > on apr 1, 2014, at 2:14 pm, scott rumery <blindfait...@gmail.com> wrote: > > hello scott, > > you will probably get a lot of varying opinions on this topic so you will > have to decide which ones you will take seriously or not. having said this > let me first tell you that ever since i switched to using a mac more than 3 > years ago i have become probably one of the biggest apple fan boys that there > is, so my thoughts on this subject are going to have a strong apple bias to > them. > > if you are wanting a computing environment that is very stable compared to > what you are currently getting on the windows platform then in my opinion you > would be very happy with a mac. > > the instability of my windows computer is exactly what helped me to make the > decision to make the switch over 3 years ago. > > i used to have to restart my windows computer several times a day and now > that i am on a mac i hardly ever need to reboot. > > you will notice that i said "hardly." i have had to restart my mac once in a > while due to lost speech or something, but as i stated with the use the word > hardly this does not happen with any regularity. > > now having said all of this let me give you a little word of caution about > switching platforms. i teach blind people who make this switch how to use > their macs for a company called fedora outlier, llc and one the biggest > mistakes that people make is thinking that switching from a windows computer > over to a mac computer is going to be easy. > > it isn't as easy as one might think. after all you are going to have to learn > how to use a totally different operating system and a new and different > screen reader. > > now having said this if you are determined to learn the new platform and you > do it correctly by this i mean that you don't try and learn everything in one > day you can definitely learn how to use a mac very quickly. > > one more thing. in response to your question as to whether or not a mac is > more stable than a windows computer. remember earlier when i said that when i > was still using a windows computer i would have to restart the computer > several times a day, well with my current mac which is 2012 mac book pro with > 4 gigabytes of ram i haven't had to restart it in about 2 weeks. my mac is on > 24 hours a day. during the day when i am working i am actually using it, and > at night the mac will just sleep, but it hasn't been turned off in at least 2 > weeks now and voiceover is running flawlessly . > > i hope that all of this helps you with your decision and if you need anything > else please just ask. > > have a great day, > > scott rumery > on apr 1, 2014, at 11:44 am, scott duck <scottduck1...@gmail.com> wrote: > > hi everyone, > > as i said previously, i am thinking about getting a mac and the main reason > is that i am tired of the increasing instability of the pc environment. my > first question is, is this really different on a mac? > > i am using jaws 15 with windows 8. both are not all that stable. i have > been a jaws user for 17 years and i have noticed a definite progressive > increase in instability with the last few releases. jaws crashes frequently > and, even if it doesn't crash, it often stops talking when errors occur with > other applications. then, there's windows 8. i don't mind the windows 8 > interface but several times per week, i will have a problem that requires me > to restart my computer. i did not have that nearly as much with windows 7. > also, it isn't unusual for me to install a program which will, either > directly or through add ins, make windows and/or jaws more unstable. i then > have to decide rather the additional functionality is worth the increased > instability. i'm just tired of all the crashes and reboots and having to use > three or four screen readers because i have to run one when another one > crashes. > > by contrast, my iphone and ipad, while not perfect, are certainly more > stable. voiceover seldom just stops working. of course, every single app is > not accessible and they do not all work correctly but any problems with an > app are almost always confined only to that app. when an app crashes, it > usually does not also cause voiceover or the device to crash. is this also > true of the mac? > > i have certainly used technology enough to know that none of it is perfect. > however, i would like something that is better than the pc, when it comes to > stability. over all, in your experience, is the mac more stable? > > thanks, > scott duck > > -- > you received this message because you are subscribed to the google groups > "macvisionaries" group. > to unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email tomacvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > to post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. > 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