Hi, Jan.
The conversation that you had with that individual sounded very
interesting. I'd love to meet this individual. In fact, feel free to
give him my my email address, if he's in a position to email and has a
desire to do so.
The operating system to which he is referring to is Linux. There are
several sides to the issue he brings up regarding its level of assistive
technology support and, please bear in mind, I'm hardly an expert when
it comes to Linux.
On the one hand, there are probably precious few assistive technology
instructors who are teaching blind people how to work in Linux. There
are several reasons for this. First, I'll bet that most training centers
are prioritizing with Windows training, with the Mac being a small
minority. This is consistent with the overall market share, which sees
only around 7 or 8 percent when it comes to the Mac and nearly everybody
else using Windows. While many companies do use the Mac (Comcast
included, by the way), the perception, whether accurate or totally
wrong, is that most employers use Windows and so that's what every blind
person in rehab training better be learning. Most employers probably
don't use Linux. I'll bet that many state rehab counselors have barely
heard of it and so that translates to just about nobody in the blindness
field being trained in its use. It's all Windows and nearly all of that
will center around JAWS. When I worked for ASB, we never received one
request, to my knowledge, for Linux training. If we had received one I'd
have been happy to oblige the student, although I'd need some prep time
as I've not used it but it would have been fun for me to learn it.
Having said that, Linux is accessible. The entire operating system is
open source and so anybody can download and install it at no cost,
including free screen readers for access. I've heard that its level of
accessibility might not be quite up to the same level as Windows but I
haven't done much research. My brother-in-law only uses Mac and Linux
machines and, when my wife and I visited him in 2009 or thereabouts, he
installed it for me and I would have had a chance to learn it. However,
I was more interested in using the Mac over Linux and so that's what I
used when I was down there.
As for the privacy issues in Windows 10, some of them may be reasonable.
However, Microsoft has apparently modified its privacy controls in the
Windows 10 Creator's Update, which is probably due out this spring, and
I think more privacy advocates may calm down once that update has been
released. Even with the current build of Windows 10, users do have a
great deal of control when it comes to what your computer sends to
Microsoft and, from what I've read, some of the issues which people have
may be totally unfounded. As to its level of security, Windows 10 is
likely more secure than Windows 7 and your firewall, antivirus program
and good common sense will go a long way in offering a reasonable amount
of protection. It's true that you're far less likely to have your
computer crippled by a virus if you use a Mac and you're even less
likely to contract one with Linux. People who read my messages know that
I've been a victim of two computer viruses since 1999 and that's two
viruses more than anybody should get. I've learned not to get cocky and
I'd certainly prefer the security of a Mac, although I'm not willing to
give up Windows at this time. People who use Windows 10 are nearly just
as likely to get hit with a virus if they don't use good antivirus
software; that's as true for Windows 10 as it is for Windows Vista. I'm
sure that people more computer savvy than I am might disagree with me on
the issues of privacy and security and that's OK. However, there are
privacy issues when you surf the Web or when you use an Amazon Echo. I
have more concerns about some of those issues even more than Windows 10.
Just my two cents.
On 1/13/2017 4:56 PM, Jan Lattuca wrote:
Wow, assuming all goes well, that sounds pretty exciting, David. Good
luck and have fun accessing all that old stuff.
My computer was mis-behaving very badly for a few weeks, but now
(mysteriously) it seems fine again, so I will finally take this
opportunity to wish all of you a blessed 2017.
Also, I had an interesting conversation with someone yesterday who
lost his sight about seven years ago, and was previously an instructor
and a something else in the computer field, using primarily the Linnox
(or Lennox) operating system. He said that there doesn't seem to be
much support for this operating system in the adaptive technology
field. He also said that he feels Windows 10 is dangerous because of
how easy it now is for Microsoft to access our info. He feels that
Windows in general, is very virus-prone, but that it has gotten worse
after Windows 7.
Any thoughts about all of this?
Jan
On 1/13/17, David Goldfield <dgoldfield1211@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In our den I have a ton of old 3.5 inch floppy disks that I've usedYou are invited to visit the moderator's Web site at WWW.DavidGoldfield.Info
since the 1990s. Since I got my latest computer in late 2013, I haven't
been able to access them since my Dell has no floppy drive and none of
the computers from my current and previous job had a floppy drive. I
finally decided that I was going to do something about this once and for
all and, at the end of the year, I ordered a USB 3.5-inch floppy disk
from Amazon which didn't even cost me fifteen dollars. I now have it and
plan to start going through my old floppies this weekend, with the goal
of archiving whatever I might find to be of value. It's a really weird
thing to know that I have access to such a thing on my Windows machine.
The drive reminds me of the second edition of the Blazie Engineering
disk drive, as the dimensions are almost identical. If anybody has any
last-minute warnings or bits of advice about using a 3.5 inch drive with
Windows 10, now is the time to advise me. <grin>
--
David Goldfield,
Assistive Technology Specialist
Feel free to visit my Web site
WWW.DavidGoldfield.Info
You are invited to visit the moderator's Web site at WWW.DavidGoldfield.Info
for additional resources and information about assistive technology training
services.
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