My first screen reader, which is one that hasn't been mentioned yet, was screen power. I used it on a little IBM laptop from late 94 to early 98. That's when i switched to jaws in school. But I had experience with it at home before hand, in 1996 using jaws for dos with a dec pc/express, which i used up until 2005 (the decPC/express, that is, with windows 98). i loved the dec too much. Now I am using a Del desktop with XP and an upgraded version ofthe Dec(Dec Express...) trust me, they are different in look and feel but not for sound production as much... and a laptop for school purposes running jaws and the dectalk access 32 software. I much prefer the external, not only for speech output, but for the external factor as well. I would never switch to Dectalk USB! Patricia