Re: nvda: its achievements over the years and its drawbacks
Lol Assault, I totaly agree with that.
To address the NVDA VS Jaws issue...
I've been using Jaws for almost 15 years (since version 3.5 I believe). I've been using NVDA on and off for maybe 5.
Let's address the whole copying thing first. While it's true that NVDA and Jaws have copied things from each other, I don't see this as an issue. Personally I like it. Since Jaws was the one of the most, if not the most popular reader before NVDA, it doesn't make sense to me why you could attack either for copying from each other. If they're both doing the same thing, then what does it matter who took from who? That's like saying, this program put minimize, maximize and restore in the system menu, but I'll put those options in the view menu of my program. Yet nothing does it, because putting them in the system menu is a part of standard Windows basics, which by now are so concrete that many people are used to it.
Now, with that
said, I love Jaws and NVDA both. Jaws because i'm used to how it reads things. It never says the word Paine... at least not very often... you don't get the "dreaded unknown". Its auto forms mode I am more used to, and it has less of a habbit to jump around web pages. Its default browse mode settings I like loads more than NVDA. I often am pulling my hair out in frustration because NVDA simply says too much by default and I have tog o hunting for settings. For instance i was browsing a web page the other day which had three table inside each other. Instead of using a virtual cursor and putting elements on their own line, NVDA started trying to read the properties of all three tables in one large chunk. It was truly overwhelming. Could I change that if i wanted to? Probably, but people don't want that in a screen reader. I'd have to read the NVDA users manual to find out what I should change and then figure out what it all means. Manuals are good things
but not everyone is going to be able to understand them if they know nothing about Windows. My point being that a lot of this material is included for a reason. If I recall there are options to uninstall those things. So it goes both ways here. If you don't like installing NVDA add-ons, Jaws may be better for you. On the other hand if you like installing NVDA add-ons because Jaws is too cluttered by default, maybe unclutter it. Don't use those features. No matter what a developer does, someone is going to be unhappy.
Now, with that said, I am a fan of the Jaws cursor. I am not so much a fan of NVDA's object navigation. I like Jaws's OCR when it works. I haven't tried NVDA's OCR because I haven't heard anything to support how much better it is than Jaws's. I am not a huge fan of Jaws's price tag, but i am of NVDA's. I am not a fan of how many FS processes Jaws uses and how easy it is to have a million FSSynth32.exe processes or
how easy it is to crash Eloquents, but NVDA has neither of these problems. I think Jaws and NVDA are both responsive but NVDA does have an edge. I am not a fan of how hard it is to expand Jaws's functionality and how easy it is to break it. I am also not a fan of how certain features like Research it, which I am strongly opposed to having, are in Jaws by default. but NVDA really lets you make it your own. For instance, I like having Instant Translate, and that I can get rid of it if I want to at any time. If it came with Jaws, I wouldn't like it because it's not something I believe should be forced into a screen reader because it's like saying, hey you sighted people can't use it but us blind people get it so easily, it comes with our screen reader and we didn't even have to do anything to make it work! Having it as an option that you get later balances this a little since a sighted person can get a Firefox add-on I believe which does something si
milar. Word comes with features which are similar too if I remember right.
So, what's my verdict? I don't have one. I switch back and forth between the two probably a few times a week. I use Jaws for web browsing and most things. I use NVDA for some word processing because of its responsiveness. It's a pain to switch back and forth, yes, but I'm not the only one who switches bak and forth between things. It's no different than switching between Skype and IMessage for certain people. I'd rather Skype, but whatever's more convenient for us, I'll use. It could change from day to day, but I am their friend so I don't mind doing it. I am friends with my PC so I'll switch screen readers ten times daily if it makes it easier for me to do the things I am doing that day. And for the record, I have switched back and forth that many times on several occasions.
If I could only use one, it would have to be Jaws, if it was totally up to
me. But two years ago, my college wanted to set up a computer I could use in their testing center for me to take tests on. They were going to put Jaws on it but needed the contact info for Freedom Scientific and whatnot. Instead I pointed them to NVDA. Yes, as a Jaws user, I told a college which could've easily paid for a license not to do so, and instead to install NvDA. I since regret it. I so badly want to put Eloquents on it because eSpeak drives me up a wall. And I could go into derogatory and outright inappropriate comments I have received about using Eloquents - yet another battle to fight in the screen reader war - but I won't go there because we've gone beyond the original scope of this topic enough. But I'm willing to do a little give and take without challenging one side or the other. It's something I've done ever since I became proficient with Windows. All in all it's easier for me to do that than to sit there fighting about which progr
am not to use.
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