I responded to some statements below as well as another post on the
question of going with a Mac instead of a Pc.
On 15/07/11 09:28, Mike Pietruk wrote:
> People are far too concerned with what preloaded software may be on a
> machine which can be easily ignored or removed if needed.
> Space on a hd is so huge these days as this hardly matters in my
> estimation.
For the most part, I agree, although removing stuff you don't want could
take a while. I also worry a bit about leaving the bloatware there and
what that means to system performance versus removing the bloatware and
what kinds of instabilities that might introduce. All that being said,
unless you want to pay the money to install windows from scratch or have
a custom built machine then it's something you'll need to deal with no
matter where you buy your system. Lenovo's have a reputation of not
having as much bloatware as most, and others may have a reputation of
having a bit more, but they all have some.
> As for Deborahs asking about laptop vs desktop, I would only note that
> historically laptops don't seem to have the longevity as a desktop.
> This may not matter much for the casual user; but if you work hours a day
> with a pc, I would consider this.
> Personally, I like having both for different situations.
I don't think this is as true as it used to be. Going with two different
systems is a good solution, and that's what I did for years. You do need
to spend some time keeping things synchronized between the two systems
though, but the cloud has made that easier. For me, as powerful as
laptops have become, when I got my Asus U36, I did it thinking that that
would be come my primary system, and that has become the case. My old
desktop system has become the backup system for the family now.
Interestingly enough, I use my laptop as my major system and take it on
business trips, but I still use my Asus netbook as my ultra portable
little device, taking it on vacations and moving it around the house
when I don't want to disconnect my external keyboard and speakers from
my laptop.
> As for Christopher's point of installing additional ram himself, that
> might work well for someone like him who is comfortable in doing so. I am
> guessing that Deborah may not want to touch the inside of her pc; and if
> she goes with a laptop, additional ram may be not so easy to install
> later.
Ah, good point. Swapping out memory is easier than people may think
though, and at least on my Asus U36 it's easy to get to (You just pop
off a little cover and it's right there.), but I wouldn't think any
less of anyone who didn't feel comfortable doing it themselves and wants
the peace of mind of paying a bit more to have some technician at the
factory take care of that.
> As for a laptop, consider battery life and whether or not an extended life
> battery is available. If it is, it's probably worth the cost in the
> long-run.
True, but again you're trading off weight for battery life. I went with
the U36 because it isn't much bigger and heavier than the Macbook Air (I
think it comes with just a 3 or 4 cell battery.), but you still get from
6 to 10 hours of battery life. It cost a bit more, but I was more
willing to trade money for battery life than weight. My only point is
that it just comes down to choice, if battery life is more important to
you than weight, go with an extended battery, if light weight is more
important than skip it. It just comes down to trade offs and what you
want to use your laptop for.
> There are no right or wrong answers to this whole purchase thing; just
> opinions. more than likely, whatever she buys, she will be satisfied
> along with some post-decision regrets in the process.
I would agree, although in addition to plenty of opinions, I'd mention
that there are also a lot of trade offs that can be made. Also, if
you're replacing a 7 year old system, I think you'll be so happy with
what you end up with that your post decision regrets will be minimal!
On 15/07/11 16:09, Paul Leung wrote:
> ... and I am one of them. Although I am a longtime JAWS user, I
> wonder if computers such as Apple with built-in screen reader have an
> user advantage ofer others such as initial cost, convenience,and
> yearly upgrade cost among other reasons. From business standpoint, what
> will happen to the diminishing market for add-on screen readers in the
> near future? And if that happens, what then will happen to those
> companies and consequently their customer services? Meanwhile, I
> appreciate you experts can help me to justify spending the same amount
> if not more money to buy a add-on screen reader software as a good laptop.
This is as much an emotional or philosophical debate as anything else.
Anyone can do the math can compare the price of a PC with a screen
reader to the price of an equivalently tricked out Mac. I will mention a
few things to consider though.
First, although you do have to pay for updates to your screen reader,
don't forget that Windows XP has been supported for over 10 years and
there's never been a charge for an update.
Second, even if the Mac and VoiceOver is as intuitive as everyone says,
it's still going to take some time to get used to the new screen reader,
operating system and set of applications. This may or may not be worth
it, but it needs to be considered.
Third, there are other options on PC's that don't require the cost of a
screen reader. For example, I use vinux with Orca, Speakup and
Emacspeak. None of this software cost me any money at all. The same
would be said for someone running Windows and NVDA. With a solution like
this, there's no doubt that a PC will save you quite a bit of money over
a comparably equipped Mac. Of course, each person has to decide if
Linux, NVDA or VoiceOver is going to meet their needs and work with the
applications they want to and need to use every day.
Macs are great pieces of equipment. For my last system, which was going
to be my new business laptop, I debated between the Asus U36 and a
Macbook Pro. On the Asus, my plan was to dual boot between Vinux and
Windows and be able to run each as a client OS under the other using
VMWare. For the Macbook Pro, I was going to do the same thing only
addind in Bootcamp, Parallels and OSX. I was also planning on getting a
JAWS license regardless of which way I went. Since this was my business
laptop, I was more worried about not being able to do some task than I
was about the money. I ended up going with the Asus U36, and I don't
regret it. I almost never boot up into Windows any more. I guess I might
regret putting JAWS on it, but when I do need to boot into Windows, more
often than not, I do need to use JAWS. Who knows though, maybe this will
be my last SMA for JAWS!
As far as the price of the hardware was concerned, the Macbook Pro I
settled on would have cost me over $500 more than the Asus U36, and it
was a slightly inferior machine. Although the money wasn't the deciding
factor, the thought of having to learn a 3rd OS and screen reader is
probably what tipped the balance in favor of the Asus U36. On an
emotional level, I also figured that if I went with a Macbook Pro, my
next cell phone would probably end up being a iPhone. When I saw how
much I hated the iPhone 4, and how ugly I thought it was, that probably
unfairly and uncontiously played into my feelings at the time as well.
I'm hoping the iPhone 5 isn't as ugly as the iPhone 4 and looks more
like the iPhone 3. Maybe then I'll reconsider the iPhone and the Macbook
in turn won't be so foreign to me.
--
Christopher (CJ)
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