In one way, I guess you could say 7.2 worked pretty stabil. And, sometimes,
you get a feeling the newer versions are getting out the door somehow
"pre-mature". WE8 was released less than six months ago, and they already
have upgraded that one twice. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case with
a load of software - these days.
Now, downgrading to 7.2; I would be rather careful. A few reasons for such
precautions. Up till now, we have seen versions of WE supporting everything
from XP and up. So, 7.2 would still support that flavor of windows. But in
just under 11 months, Microsoft is going to pull the XP plug. That is less
than a year from now.By then, my guess is, that you will have a really hard
time in finding any Windows7 machines on the market - at least, if you are
going for a new computer. Taking the plunge from XP to Windows8, will be a
tremmendous jump, that I am just in the starting of performing myself. No
plunge I would really recommend. But by then, you will also have no choice
when comes to the version of Window-Eyes. At least, not for 7.2. Far as my
memory goes, it did not support Windows7 and up. Arrest me, if I am wrong.
The consequences would be, that you less than a year from now, will have to
learn a new Widnows interface, along with having to come back to the modern
flavors of Window-Eyes. That would make your learning curve even steeper. In
general, downgrading that far back in time, will cause little other than
trouble.
You might find, that your old XP machine with WE7.2 installed, runs
perfectly smoothly right now. And, so you determine it is due to 7.2 being
all that stabil. Yet, likely you will realize, if you take 7.2 into a more
modern system, that it might be facing instability issues of some higher
frequency.
Still another reason for being careful about downgrading to 7.2, is the
feature of installing apps. Many apps from App Central, have been developed
the last two years. That means, quite a number of them, have never been
developed for anything pre-7.5. Even the ones that was developed back then,
might have been updated. Updating an app, might include adding on certain
new features - exposed to, or hidden from the end-user - that depend on
facilities that were not available in older versions of WE. Therefore, you
could end up with some of the apps you depend on in your computer activity,
not being running properly due to them not being developed for older
versions of WE. Imagine, what kind of instability issues that could
accomplish.
I could agree, that it seems the newer versions of our screen reader, does
exhibit certain instabilities, that was not the case in older versions. I am
not going into a discussion on why, simply just stating that is what seems
to be the case. And as such, it would be great to see a version of
Window-Eyes again hit the market, that would have straightened out a handful
of stabilities. And the issue of not being able to use the mouse in modern
versions of Internet Explorer, would but stand as one example of things that
would be high on many a wishlist. Yet, you won't really solve much of these,
by downgrading. At least, not for very long.
What puzzles, is the fact that many issues are being solved by freeware
products like NVDA, Firefox and others - whilst the paid for programs like
Window-Eyes and Jaws, seem to stick too much with their old code, and
displaying issues that apparently could have a technical solution. You would
have thought, that you get what you pay for. I am still quite clear on the
matter: It is worth to pay for a screen reader. NVDA, has come a long way,
but still have essential lackings in being your main screen reader. Yet,
having all that said, NVDA several times has been my only way around certain
computer activities. And, when we ask on the list here, we are told that if
we want anything, go ahead and develop an app for it. Apps are great, but
they take enormous amount of time to develop. First of all, not everyone has
the skills and resources to develop apps, and even if they do, will have to
learn the many hidden secrets of developing good, stabil, working apps. So,
as I said, it puzzles that the technical solutions seem to be around, but if
you want them, you might often be better off with a freeware, than to throw
a thousand dollars on the table. Maybe GW should have prioritized some of
the stability issues, ahead of introducing the new interface of window-eyes
7.5. First you get used to the interface, I do see many benefits from the
new interface. Yet, I do prefer a stabil version of my screen reader in all
my hundreds of computer activities every day, quite much above a
fancy-looking interface, which I might operate a couple of times a week.
This, just to give but one example, of a prioritizing issue, where it seems
the whole computer industry has gone down the wrong lane, and seem to
treasure the fanciness far ahead of functionality. :)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Trenton Matthews" <[email protected]>
To: "Olusegun -- Victory Associates LTD, Inc." <[email protected]>
Cc: "Gwmicro gw-info mail list" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2013 2:06 AM
Subject: Re: WE 8.2 IE 10 and the mouse.
I have to agree, version 7.2 was honestly the best! version of WE to date.
Nothing can top that one!
It just, well, worked!
Honestly, Firefox 3.6.28, is still the best with WE, least for me.
Not saying that it doesn't work with the latest versions, but there's
just many things it worked better with back in the day.
On 5/8/13, Olusegun -- Victory Associates LTD, Inc.
<[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Sandra:
I think you might be better off waiting for Window-Eyes to get cleaned up
some more before upgrading at work. I work for myself and, because I
submit
claims via a state web portal for adjudication, I can't use FireFox
either.
Fortunately for me though, I run three versions of Window-Eyes at
work--7.2,
7.5.4.1 and 8.2. The first two are on two separate computers in my back
office. I swear that Window-Eyes 7.2 boots up a lot faster than the
other
two incarnations. It is what I use in my back office 99% of the time.
And
since I am still running Windows XP Professional Service Pak3, I use
Internet Explorer 8. I am in fact thinking of downgrading it to Internet
Explorer 7.
At home on a Windows7 Professional laptop computer running Internet
Explorer
10, the story is NOT A PRETTY ONE with Window-Eyes 8.2. I now plan to
install NVDA on this machine and try to give it a test drive. I've not
renewed the SMA for Window-Eyes for the reasons everyone seems to be
grappling with. May be when we get to Version 10xxxxx--and I want to
avoid
HAVING TO PAY for CUMULATIVE UPGRADES--Window-Eyes will become what it
was
several moons back.
Sincerely,
Olusegun
Denver, Colorado
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