It’s the security and reliability issues which ensure that I’m not an enthusiastic Windows proponent. I have it installed on a machine. I appreciate it when it’s useful, but it isn’t what I turn to first to get work done. Also, it isn’t UNIX-like. (You can run Linux virtualized, of course, but it’s always a compromise, and Windows PowerShell is awkward and verbose in my experience.) I find macOS and Linux to be more reliable in general. A reliable desktop operating system with excellent screen reader accessibility regrettably doesn’t exist, except possibly ChromeOS, if you can tolerate its limitations.
From: 'Donna Goodin' via MacVisionaries <macvisionaries@googlegroups.com> Date: Sunday, May 11, 2025 at 08:36 To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com <macvisionaries@googlegroups.com> Subject: Re: I am done for now with the Mac. Hi all, I agree with everything you've said here, Sabahattin. That said, I *HATE* Windows! Often I find that performing even basic tasks is incredibly unintuitive, and sometimes takes hours to figure out. I strongly prefer apple Mail over Outlook, and I hate the way Windows tries to force users to use Onedrive. I have more weird random issues when on my PC, things like the shut down option going away, fonts not sticking in a word document, and just other odd things. I rarely have issues like that on My Mac. As we all know, decisions like this are highly subjective, and each of us needs to do what's best for ourself. And I guess I’m lucky, I have a Mac for personal use, and a PC for work. But if I were going to kick one to the curb, it’d definitely be the PC. Though the braille is far better, the other annoyances would overshadow that. Re the braille display, I would strongly encourage you to give the Braille eMotion from HIMS consideration. I have used the Brailliant, and I strongly prefer the Braille Emotion. I prefer the key command structure, the voice output is a thousand times better, and it also has a media recorder. I also had an issue on the Brailliant—and I’m not the only one—where my user Profile kept getting corrupted, which resulted in my Recent Files list not working. Cheers, Donna > On May 10, 2025, at 7:41 PM, 'Sabahattin Gucukoglu' via MacVisionaries > <macvisionaries@googlegroups.com> wrote: > > You’re not wrong, honestly. Braille on macOS has always seemed to be > vestigial, at best, in a way that even iOS Braille isn’t. It’s just tech > debt, I fear, that keeps VoiceOver on macOS from being truly great, and > nowhere is that more evident than with Braille, which it’s better to have > than not, but is clearly behind other screen readers. > > I am looking at a future Braille display that’s not a Focus from Freedom > Scientific, and it comes down to a toss-up between Humanware Brailliant BI40X > and Orbit Reader 40. Astonishingly, macOS still doesn’t support Orbit Reader > using its native protocol, only through its VarioUltra emulation, as best I > can tell. This is very disappointing, to say the least of it, although it > gladdens my fleshy heart that Orbit Research implemented the feature in a > display of such economical cost at all—so much so, in fact, that I might just > wander off and buy one, in spite of that consideration. We must reward that > kind of empowering work, I think. > > As for BRLTTY, yup, I use it every single day; my Mac is often connected via > USB to my Focus but not driving it, and a VM with a textmode Linux > environment is being used instead to do all the command line things. It’s > awesome. You want this over the paltry Terminal support in macOS if you’re > using Braille. > > Good luck on your travels in Windows land. I think you will find, inevitably, > that it has downsides … but there’s no denying the superiority of Braille > support. > > -- > The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries > list. > > If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if > you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or > moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. > > Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor. 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