I offer my options, because I have used Windows NT for many years and
have great knowledge about it. First I will point out that I do have very
good sight, so I personally don't use JAWS, however I have installed, used
it on Windows 95, 98 and NT, for teaching, writing scripts, etc. Anyway.
Windows NT is not that hard to setup with hardware. As long as the
hardware has drivers written for NT, you have no problems. Windows NT with
Service pack 3 or 4 has plug and play support though it is limited. Almost
all hardware has NT drivers now a days.
Windows NT is far more stable then Windows 95 and 98. My Windows NT
machine has never crashed, all my programs run perfectly. If you don't use
stable drivers for your hardware, you may run into problems. My advice is
get the latest drivers for all your hardware under NT and if you ever get
any NT crashes, you have a problem with your drivers most often.
I have use NT on networks, without any problems and I not Microsoft
certified. If you have a basic knowledge about networks, you should have no
problems. Maybe a bit UNIX bias are we Aaron?
I not sure that the price will fall for the NT version, since it sounds
like Microsoft will be extending the Windows 95/98 line for another few
years. And they will have two different versions of Windows 2000, one based
on NT and one on Windows 98. Their is a big difference.
If you have any question about Windows NT, please send them to me and I be
happy to answer them.
Sheldon
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: Aaron Howell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 1999 6:08 PM
Subject: Re: Updating my unit,
Ok, I should clarify a few things here.
First of all, I was unaware of the inclusion of active accessability in sp4
of windows nt.
I apologize for the confusion there.
I do however stand behind my other assertions.
NT is much harder to get working with hardware because of the lack of plug
and play support.
This can cause troubles for the would-be nt user as
hardware that works under 95 won't necessarily work under nt, and just
because it is compatible with jaws under 95 does not guarantee its
compatibility with jaws under NT.
This is something you have to look into before you upgrade.
With respect to stability, my experiences with NT have been less than
favorable.
Perhaps others' experience may vary.
A lot of the instability I have seen has been because I use advanced network
features and nt does some truely braindead things (don't ever try to get it
to route for your local network without being a microsoft certified network
engineer) and things like caching dns entries it shouldn't etc.
This sort of thing can be really incidious for normal users who don't know
whats going on, because it often appears that the problem is with your
internet service provider. I just spent 2 weeks having to support NT and its
not something I want to do again in a hurry.
Then there is the issue of the extra cost of Jaws for NT.
This is a cost that is going to have to come down when win2000 comes out,
otherwise HJ will not be able to compete in the market against the other
screen reader companies who do drop their NT prices.
I'm sorry but my desktop computer is pretty damn powerful and its worth less
than Jaws for NT here in Australia. Thats just stupid.
$1400 for a change to a keydisk is even stupider.
At this point I am still recommending visually impaired people hold back on
the upgrade to Windows NT and instead prepare for the upgrade to win2000.
NT4 is an unnecessary step backwards, a step you will pay extra for in just
a few months.
In short, don't do it.
If you're running win98, stay right where you are for now.
If you're running win95 and you feel you must upgrade, go to win98, as its
cheaper, you don't need to pay HJ hundreds more for a product you will only
use for a few months, and you will find your system on the whole runs
better.
This applies particularly to those of you who have minimully configured
systems,
32mb of ram and a pentium is _not_ enough to run nt with jaws.
Especially not if you are goign to expect software speech to run.
I hope that clarifies my position a bit.
Regards
Aaron
--
Aaron Howell Kitten Internet.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unix/Networking support/system
integration
irc: DaRkAnGeL +61-417-625550
I love you Nessa, now, forever, always!
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