Fair comments... However, wasn't Exchange support added to Mail with Snow Leopard?
Whilst there is a smaller audience on the Mac front who are not requesting VoiceOver support from Developers yet there will quite a wait before we start to see more accessible stuff. Windows has had JAWS, Windows Eyes etc for many many years. VoiceOver is only 5 years old and in my opinion it only became usable fully in October last year. So I think we are doing pretty well all things considered. But I will soon be dipping my toe into the Windows world of accessibility at work. I do hope Logic Pro gains voice over support and Sound Studio etc to help rebalance the situation when it comes to audio. Don't expect support for Reason or record though, the developers have told that it is something they will not be doing. This is where JAWS can have an advantage of VoiceOver, as scripts can be made to over come this. On 19 Jun 2010, at 00:57, Bryan Smart wrote: > I like the Mac, too, but it can't do everything. > > For music and audio production, we now have Pro Tools, but, for many tasks, > software systems under Windows like Sonar still have superior access. So, for > now, I run Sonar in BootCamp. > > I run a small business, and use Outlook and Excel extensively. Mac Mail > doesn't have any server solution like Exchange. Numbers might be a > replacement for Excel, but I have a huge set of templates built up in Excel > that I haven't spent the time to convert. > > There are practically no accessible games for the Mac. The only ones that > partly work are Audio Quake and Sound RTS, and those take a huge amount of > manual hackery to get going. On Windows, there are several first person > shooters (single and network player), RPG games, racing games, strategy/war > games, board and card games, etc. If you have a Mac, and you want to use any > of that, you need Windows. > > Plus, there is other specialty software like Klango and TeamTalk that aren't > available for the Mac. > > I realize that this next remark could be taken badly. So, I want you to know > that I'm trying to say it as constructively as possible. I might be wrong, > but it is my understanding that you got one of the jobs that Apple posted > recently. Congratulations. However, you'll poorly serve yourself and your > employer if you allow your knowledge of accessible computing to start and > stop with OS X. You can't evaluate your work unless you know the works of > others such that you can judge your relative success. When I was at > Microsoft, for example, people routinely had secondary machines in their > offices that ran other OSes (like Linux variants). This was encouraged. If > everyone lives in their own little bubble, surrounded by other people at the > same company that also share the same little bubble, then entire trends can > come and go in the outside world without them even noticing. > > If you're doing something accessibility related at Apple, then you should > have Windows installed on a computer that you must routinely use for some > required task, so that you'll force yourself to use it. You don't need to get > Jaws. Get Window Eyes. get System Access. The point is to make yourself do > something in Windows world so that you can have experience with what they get > right, and what they get wrong. > > Anyway, I hope that you didn't get too upset by my response, either. I don't > want to be critical, but, if you're trying to improve the accessibility > situation on the Mac, you must know what others are trying. It isn't enough > to only live in Mac world. > > Bryan > > -----Original Message----- > From: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com > [mailto:macvisionar...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of David McLean > Sent: Friday, June 18, 2010 2:19 PM > To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com > Subject: Re: -- SPAM -- Re: installing windows on macs? What are the > advantages/why do people opt for this? > > The only thing I use Windows for, and the only reason I installed it on the > Mac as a Vm, is to use Winamp. I like Vlc but I just haven't found anything > I like as well as Winamp. > Also I've been a Windows used since the mid 90s so there are still a few > times such as now with the Audible/Safari problem where it is just more > convenient to go back to Windows temporarily. > On Jun 18, 2010, at 10:38 AM, Donna Goodin wrote: > >> Hi Olivia, >> >> Remember that a lot of us who are coming to the Mac now, have been >> Windows users for many years, which means, unfortunately, that we >> already own that expensive third-party software. :) >> >> Speaking only for myself of course, I got a Mac b/c I like the notion of >> out-of-the-box accessibility, and I want to support Apple in this approach. >> I would also be happy to stop paying for upgrades to that expensive >> 3rd-party software. When I bought my Mac, my plan had been to abandon >> Windows completely, but I have found that simply isn't possible. Right now, >> there is not a good scanning option for the Mac, unless you want to commit >> to fine-reader without a demo, and use it in conjunction with Vuescan. My >> copy of Kurzweil works great, so I continue to scan on my old Windows >> machine. I also find that some Word docs with tables in them read much >> better in Windows than on the Mac. I also use the Duxbury translator, which >> runs under Windows. Also, several of us have noted that audio captchas work >> much better under windows than they do on the Mac. Moreover, at least on >> the faculty end, Blackboard works *much better under Windows, in fact, as of >> last winter, Safari 4 wasn't even supported. So, though I had not planned >> to continue using Windows, for all of the above reasons, I still do. My >> solution has been to simply hang onto my Windows machine. But if you can't >> do that for whatever reason, your only option is to run a dual-boot system >> on your Mac. >> >> I love my Mac, but right now it simply cannot completely replace my Windows >> machine. So, until it can, I'll be running both. >> Take care, >> Donna >> On Jun 18, 2010, at 10:05 AM, Olivia Norman wrote: >> >>> Hi Everyone, >>> Now, this is just my opinion, so don't flame me to much, OK? :) I just >>> don't understand totally why people install windows on the mac and what >>> they use it for? It seems to me, and my admittedly limited experience with >>> windows over the last few years, that it just simply isn't worth the >>> trouble and expense for most people. Consider that windows isn't >>> accessible out of the box, so you've often got to get some expensive third >>> party solution like Jaws to make it accessible to you, as well as >>> purchasing windows. I guess the question I'm asking here, is if you're >>> going to shell out the cash for windows, and the third party access >>> solutions, why get a mac in te first place? Also, from a VO users >>> prospective, how difficult is it to switch between the two operating >>> systems? >>> I'm just curious, and if you're using windows, I would be interested in >>> knowing why and how you switch between the OS's? >>> Thanks for appeasing my curiosity! I'm sure there are totally good reasons >>> for using windows on a mac, I'd just like to know why/what they are! >>> Olivia >>> "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower" Steve Jobs >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >>> >>> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MacVisionaries" group. >> To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
