Will that shark ever stop eating people?

I agree with the thrust of your article, but I've got one small correction:

> Support for Nuance’s Vocalizer Expressive 2.2 synthesizer, adding voices and new language support

NVDA does not, in fact, have this. The latest version of vocalizer offered by the two competing NVDA addons is 1.1, as far as I can tell. If you compare the voice and language lists, JAWS now has 2 English voices that neither NVDA addon has, and I think 1 or 2 new languages. However, I don't know of any reason why the NVDA addons couldn't be upgraded; it's probably just a matter of time. Also, according to an audio recording posted to Twitter, the vocalizer support in jaws is $1.

I agree that the update model for JAWS is terrible for regular users who aren't having someone else pay for the software. I use NVDA at home now for this reason.

But windows 10 magnifier and Zoomtext are definitely not equal. Zoomtext is much clearer, has a lot more color, font, focus, etc options, better dual monitor options, support for various programs, and so on. If someone has low vision and uses a magnifier every day I would definitely recommend that they buy Zoomtext if they can get it. I haven't found any free or cheap options that come close.

You echo what I have heard from others. JAWS version upgrades are instead regarded with annoyance and frustration. Freedom is bumping the version number so that people have repurchase an SMA to get compatibility bug fixes without getting much actual value. It is hard to imagine anyone buying upgrades or SMA for these new "features".