It is irrelevant to *you* if it is available in Kurdish but I'm certain some people blinded by Turkish cluster bombs won't care if it works in English. Price, for now, must be considered with a much lower priority than depth and breadth of feature set as an underpowered screen reader causes people to gain false hope and lose real jobs. In an upcoming blog post, I will be announcing that I will no longer work on AT that doesn't carry some form of a free (as in freedom with a lower case "f") license. It doesn't have to be GPL 3 but I'll probably be spending the summer in the GNU offices up in Boston and all of my managing, specifying, hacking, etc. will be on free software only. I've loads of reasons for this decision and I'm at a point in my career where my clients pay me handsomely to work on free software so I have the luxury of refusing to keep my work available to everyone. I understand the price issues and think that a lot needs to be done in that area. I've also seen people lose jobs because the AT couldn't deliver the features needed to perform a job for which they had been hired. Free software with a solid extensibility model is probably the only way to solve both problems but the events that will make that possible are well off in the future. cdh -----Original Message----- From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of James Panes Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 9:02 AM To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Seeking possible tasks for Dueling Operating Systems at CSUN There are few people that would argue against JAWS being king of the hill when it comes to screen readers, however, cost must be a consideration when deciding on what system to purchase. This is why the shark has not eaten the competition yet. It is irrelevent to me if a screen reader is offered in Curdish, but I care a whole lot if I can not perform basic tasks because a system with AT is right out of my price range. Regards, Jim jimpanes@xxxxxxxxx jimpanes@xxxxxxxxxxxx "Everything is easy when you know how." ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Hofstader" <chris.hofstader@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 8:43 AM Subject: RE: Seeking possible tasks for Dueling Operating Systems at CSUN Price is only a valuable criteria if the AT serves the user with the features he needs. Absolutely free hardware, software and electricity in English only is of no value to one who only Speaks Tagalog. -----Original Message----- From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of James Panes Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 8:28 AM To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Seeking possible tasks for Dueling Operating Systems at CSUN I think that an important part of the performance measure should be the final cost of the configuration used for each system. This will help to put Windows and Mac OS on a more equal footing. I honestly believe, however, that UNIX will wipe the floor with both of them if this is made one of the criteria. Regards, Jim jimpanes@xxxxxxxxx jimpanes@xxxxxxxxxxxx "Everything is easy when you know how." __________ View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind __________ NOD32 2924 (20080305) Information __________ This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. http://www.eset.com __________ View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind