Hi Dark,
Yeah, well, that's just the minimum specs. The truth is that's not
including apps such as Goldwav, Soundforge, Photoshop, etc that need
CPU power and ram of their own. Most experts recommend at least a 2
GHZ processor, 2 GB of ram, and a video card with 256 of video ram
just for a basic office machine running Windows 7. As most computers
in offices aren't that up to date companies are going to have to shell
out quite a lot of money to upgrade both hardware and software.
So anyway, I definitely understand your position. Unfortunately, I
don't think Microsoft will be changing their habits any time soon.
They have their ajenda to totally rewrite the user interface for
everything which totally ups the learning curve for anyone who is
blind and uses a screen reader, or even if it isn't hard to learn it
upsets your own personal organisation etc.
For instance, I have a friend who has to use Microsoft office 2010.
Well, he was using MS Office 2003 previously so the jump from 2003 to
2010 was something like jumping butt naked in a frozen lake as far as
the user interface goes it was that much of a shock. He had no
experience with menu ribbons, the way things are reordered on the
screen, and he has been constantly cussing and complaining about it
ever since. The problem is he can't find what he's looking for half
the time where with Office 2003 or earlier he can tell you exactly
where to find it without looking at it. It is these sorts of
unnecessary user interface changes that I think will eventually turn
people off of Microsoft products if they aren't careful.
This is where the open source community is quickly filling that gap.
For Windows 7 users someone created Classic Shell which is a nice
little third-party patch to force Windows 7 to go back to looking more
or less like Windows XP. If you really hate Office 2010 there is Open
Office 3.3 which uses a classic MS Office look and feel. The only
drawback is it doesn't support the new docx format of 2007/2010, but
every Office format up to 2003 is supported. So it does make a great
alternative for MS Office for most users. My only complaint is Windows
screen readers don't support it where the Linux and I believe the Mac
screen reader does.
Anyway, my basic point is there are cheaper freely available products
that are slowly but surely over taking Microsoft products on their
own platform. One of the big reasons is Microsoft's new inovations are
backfiring and simply are ticking people off. What Microsoft hasn't
quite figured out is that what people want is stability, reliability,
plus long term support. That's why XP was such a success. It was
designed in 2001, but it is being maintained and supported clear upto
the present day. Three service packs later there are both blind and
sighted people who refuse to give it up because it has reached a point
were it is very stable, reliable, etc and most people are of the if
it ain't broke don't fix it opinion. That's hurting Microsoft's big
plans I think.
Cheers!
On 4/21/11, dark d...@xgam.org wrote:
Hi Tom.
Ouch! those specs aren't nice, though i will admit that sinse I find out
about classic shell I'm less apprehensive of the point when I need to
upgrade to windows 7.
part of my issue, as well as the 3D graphical stupidity, is also that
microsoft seem to have an obsession with ordering your desktop and other
menues according to their! criteria, eg, most recently used this,
recommended that, standard the other.
I stil use the classic menue in windows xp, not because the standard one is
less accessible, but simply because it's far easier to organize in the way
that I desire.
For instance, the only shortcuts I have on the desktop itself are programs i
use a lot and have keys to, like winamp, ms word and outlook express
(certainly not games), while in my programs menue I have a hole bunch of
folders and subfolders for different hings.
For instance, I have an audiogames folder, with the games indexed by
developer, so that if I want to play shades of doom or gma tank commander,
even if I haven't played it for ages, i know just where to find it.
The same goes for my favourites, where I have folders of links for all sorts
of subjects from audiogames to online games, to sf resources, to useful bits
of software and philosophy books online.
The last thing I want is some ms specific arrangement messing all this
organization up or requiring me to change a system which i've used now for
about the last ten years.
So, that's why I hope that by the time it comes to upgrade, ms will have
sorted their act out, sinse while I could go mac or linux, sinse I only
really use the computer for specific things all of which I've got favourite
programs for most of which are windows specific (not to mention
compatibility with games etc), I'm not sure how much bennifit I'd personally
get from changing os.
Beware the Grue!
Dark.
---
Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org
If you want
