[nfbcs] [nabs-l] Basic Questions About Mac versus Pc

[Steve Jacobson]

Joe,

I am not a MAC user, at least not at this point, but I definitely am one who takes it seriously.  In the end, though, I think 
there is much to be gained by remaining as consistent as you can be with your co-workers in terms of the platform you 
use.  Clearly, if your workers use Windows and one of the major apps they use is not very accessible and the MAC 
version of the same app is much more accessible, you should give it a very good look.  If your co-workers are using 
MACS and the apps they use seem to be pretty accessible, it would seem worth going with a MAC unles you found the 
same apps were much more accessible on a Windows machine.  However, going it alone on the job with either platform 
puts you at a disadvantage.

I am still not convinced, although I am more than willing to listen, that it is worth going with a MAC if your job site makes 
heavy use of Microsoft Office, particularly if you will also be authoring or modifying documents.  I know that Open Office 
can handle Microsoft Office files, but if things get complicated, there are just always oddities that come to the surface.  I 
just experienced that very thing with a document my daughter wrote in Open Office on the MAC and saved in Word 
format.  Something when wrong with the formatting in a big way.  Was there a cause and could it have been corrected 
in general, 
probably, but it took time and would have taken more time to investigate than we had just then.  Again, if you were to 
establish that your productivity was much better with Open Office in this particular example, it may overcome the 
potential pitfalls, but you again run a risk of not having the support of your jobs IT or help desk staff.  This example could 
be turned around, too, meaning that using Microsoft Office if your employer uses MACs and Open Office is also probably 
not a good idea if you find Open Office to work pretty well for you.  In most cases here, we're talking about document 
compatibility with other co-workers.  TextEdit on the MAC is far more than a text editor and is a decent word processor 
and it is free and very good for most personal use.  Some compare it with WordPad, but I believe that is not really a fair 
comparison, it has more power.  I just think that consistency with your co-workers has to be a major consideration, 
whichever platform they use, as long as the apps being used are accessible.

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

>On May 8, 2010, at 11:46 AM, Joe Orozco wrote:

>> Hello all,
>> 
>> I keep hearing about all these wonderful things about Macs.  I was very
>> interested in the iPad review on Access World, and my employer's offer to
>> switch out my PC for a Mac just gets more tempting by the moment.  Still, as
>> I get older I am less tolerant of drastic changes to my office assembly, and
>> yet, temptations abound.
>> 
>> 1. In the most recent platform upgrade, how has the accessibility changed in
>> terms of the screen reader?  Is the screen reader only updated with system
>> upgrades, or are there ever updates between major upgrades?  If you had to
>> compare Voiceover to JAWS, how does their functionality break down?  I know
>> it's not fair to compare one to the other because the logic is a bit
>> different, but I'm hoping you can speak to the level of manipulation you
>> have over the applications in your computer.
>> 
>> 2. How has the compatibility changed in terms of Macs and software packages?
>> I originally hesitated, because it seemed the industry was more prone to be
>> compatible with PC products.
>> 
>> 3. How easy is it to control documents in the word processor?  Do Macs use
>> their own version of MS Office, or is there a native word processor that
>> makes Office documents readable?
>> 
>> 4. What can you tell us about their e-mail client?  Outlook has its quirks
>> but is almost 100 percent accessible.  Sunbird, by contrast, would be great
>> but in my opinion still had some accessibility shortcomings.  I'm wondering
>> if the same is true of iCal and Mac-based applications?
>> 
>> 5. How much freedom do you have with Macs to go outside of iTunes?  I don't
>> much care for proprietary packages unless it's unavoidable.
>> 
>> 6. Are hardware repairs truly limited to Apple stores?
>> 
>> I know the best thing is to play around with Macs yourself.  I intend to do
>> that when I visit our home office in California in a month, but I'm hoping
>> those of you who are daily users of the system can give up-to-date
>> information since reviews can quickly become outdated.  And, I'm sure that
>> even playing with a Mac for an hour or so would not truly give me a sense of
>> how well they meet my daily task expectations.
>> 
>> Thanks for any information and/or website recommendations.
>> 
>> Best,
>> 
>> Joe
>> 
>> "Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves,
>> some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all."--Sam Ewing
>> 
>> 
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