Lou wrote:
Does that mean that Brandon could use OpenOffice on the Mac or on Linux
and, if so, how?
I think that the Screen reader that Humanware makes, works with OOo, on
windows. [You just need a lot of RAM and a fast chip.]
I've forgotten what it costs, but if it is in the same price range as
JAWS, you are looking at $800.
Switching to Linux would be an option.
The four main issues with that are:
* Justifying the switch, after shelling out $2,000+ for software;
* Does his hardware work with Linux. Since he uses JAWS, the odds are
he also uses DecTalk. The last time I looked at the Linux Hardware
compatibility List, Dectalk was not listed. [Can you justify not using a
piece of hardware that costs roughly $1,000? ]
* Learning a new operating system. I'll grant that the first operating
system that could be installed from scratch, by a person with no vision,
was Linux. [If you had a regular monitor, it complained that there was
no monitor. You had to have a Braille Display Unit for it to install
correctly.] There is a learning curve, in switching from Windows to
Linux. The guiding philosophy for Linux is radically different from
windows. [What do you want to do today=Linux. Do what we want you to
do today=Windows.]
* The software. The design philosophy of Unix is overwhelmingly present
in Linux. This design philosophy is completely alien to the windows way
of doing things. One tool for one function=Unix. One tool for every
function=windows. Whilst this can simplify learning how to effectively
use the tools, it also requires that far more tools be installed, and
used. with a "one tool that does everything" philosophy, the help file
can usually point a person in the right direction. With one tool for one
function, man pages are useless, if one doesn't know the name of the
tool that one wants to use.
Coupled with that, is the vastly different user experience between Linux
and Windows products. For some types of programs, the differences are
merely annoying. For other types of software, there are either no
equivalent, or else non-viable equivalents. [Logos Scholar on Windows
has no Linux Equivalent. If MIE 6 runs under WINE, it _might_ run under
WINE. Would the Linux Screen reading software read the programme
running under WINE?]
xan
jonathon
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