Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Another Windows PC Vs. Bootcamp (self.Blind)
submitted by 322lancer
OK, so long story. My first laptop was an HP EliteBook from Computers For the Blind. Now, they by themselves are na bad company, and are reputable, from what I've heard. Thexperience is due in part because of a lack of communication, so I blame no one.
I purchased my PC back in early February of this year. It took five weeks to arrive, which is rediculous, but my mom and I had both agreed that the payments would be going through the state. So, two weeks go by, and when I realize that my coputer hasn't arrived yet, I call CFTB to ask what the hold up is. Low and beholdeamyst atcouncelor had not payed the fee, therefore my order had not been processed. This does not surprise me, as I've been dealing with this damn issue since I started high school and began transition from one counselor to another. Well, I had made my counselor aware beforehand what it was I was looking to order: a laptop with a 500GB SSD, 8GB of ram. Instead I recieved a 4GB ram, 120GB SSD. Now, that wouldn't have bothered me so much if they had let me know ahead of time that they weren't going to pay the full price. I honestly would have been fine paying some of that, as it would have only been about 40 dollars difference. I didn’t notice anything peculiar about my computer, as I haven’t been doing much in the beginning except for sending emails and work. It wasn’t until I started getting into my hobbies that I started to realize that the computer wasn’t functioning as it should have been, or is quickly. A friend of mine went in to system info to check out what was going on and saw that what I had been given was not at all what I had ordered. Because of what I do, and how heavily I use my PC, what I have is not ideal for what I want to do. I am hesitantto go through the state again, and at this point I am willing to pay out-of-pocket for a brand new PC. I have been debating on whether I should get a Mac, and just Bootcamp it, or order a brand new Windows PC and run a macOS VM on it. Either way, it would be cool for me to get the best of both worlds, and for me to do the things that I’ve been wanting to do for the past few months but haven’t been able to because of the lack of system requirements. I do know that there are some things better about macOS and some things better about windows. Which is why I’d like to be able to run both somehow.
I purchased my PC back in early February of this year. It took five weeks to arrive, which is rediculous, but my mom and I had both agreed that the payments would be going through the state. So, two weeks go by, and when I realize that my coputer hasn't arrived yet, I call CFTB to ask what the hold up is. Low and beholdeamyst atcouncelor had not payed the fee, therefore my order had not been processed. This does not surprise me, as I've been dealing with this damn issue since I started high school and began transition from one counselor to another. Well, I had made my counselor aware beforehand what it was I was looking to order: a laptop with a 500GB SSD, 8GB of ram. Instead I recieved a 4GB ram, 120GB SSD. Now, that wouldn't have bothered me so much if they had let me know ahead of time that they weren't going to pay the full price. I honestly would have been fine paying some of that, as it would have only been about 40 dollars difference. I didn’t notice anything peculiar about my computer, as I haven’t been doing much in the beginning except for sending emails and work. It wasn’t until I started getting into my hobbies that I started to realize that the computer wasn’t functioning as it should have been, or is quickly. A friend of mine went in to system info to check out what was going on and saw that what I had been given was not at all what I had ordered. Because of what I do, and how heavily I use my PC, what I have is not ideal for what I want to do. I am hesitantto go through the state again, and at this point I am willing to pay out-of-pocket for a brand new PC. I have been debating on whether I should get a Mac, and just Bootcamp it, or order a brand new Windows PC and run a macOS VM on it. Either way, it would be cool for me to get the best of both worlds, and for me to do the things that I’ve been wanting to do for the past few months but haven’t been able to because of the lack of system requirements. I do know that there are some things better about macOS and some things better about windows. Which is why I’d like to be able to run both somehow.
Marconius 2 points 2y ago
I'm a Mac power user and have been for years before going fully blind. I always had my Mac Pro production rig dual-booted with Bootcamp for Windows gaming. Since losing my vision, the Department of Rehab got me a Macbook Pro dual-booted with Windows 10 and JAWS. This setup works great, though it does show the general bugginess of JAWS when compared to VoiceOver on the MacOS side. I like having both now for my accessibility testing when consulting for website accessibility.
Most startups and tech companies use Macs since it's much easier to develop for iOS and Android apps in MacOS. It's good to know both MacOS and Windows depending on what you are planning to get into, but it's also just good to be versatile. I strongly prefer the Mac as VoiceOver suits me a lot better than Jaws, plus is much much faster since it's directly integrated with the OS rather than being a third-party app. The VoiceOver voice synthesis is cleaner and more natural, the workflow feels more designed in terms of user experience rather than feeling more engineered as Jaws does, and in general MacOS is just easier to maintain for security, customization, troubleshooting, and maintenance.
Most startups and tech companies use Macs since it's much easier to develop for iOS and Android apps in MacOS. It's good to know both MacOS and Windows depending on what you are planning to get into, but it's also just good to be versatile. I strongly prefer the Mac as VoiceOver suits me a lot better than Jaws, plus is much much faster since it's directly integrated with the OS rather than being a third-party app. The VoiceOver voice synthesis is cleaner and more natural, the workflow feels more designed in terms of user experience rather than feeling more engineered as Jaws does, and in general MacOS is just easier to maintain for security, customization, troubleshooting, and maintenance.
Sagar5786 1 points 2y ago
Hi OP my recommendation would be to go for Mac only so you will have flexibility to run both operating systems, m having the same set up also, as far as Apple silicon -based Macs are concerned, keep in mind Intel based Max will not be going away any time soon it will hold its value for a while, I have 2015 MacBook Pro 15 inch Specht out all the running Boot Camp as well as macOS.
guitarandbooks 1 points 2y ago
A couple things I forgot...
It's great to have Voiceover on Mac OSX and then have Jaws and NVDA on Windows 10. Between the three, I can usually find a way to get something done. Then there's voiceover and Seeing AI on the iPhone which has actually helped me solve a few computer mysteries so that is handy as well.
I have been writing/recording music and doing audio work for years and have had great performance running either operating system on my Macs.
I would not want to go back to having two separate machines. (Although when Apple Silicon becomes the norm and bootcamp is retired, I may need to find another solution. We shall see!)
It's great to have Voiceover on Mac OSX and then have Jaws and NVDA on Windows 10. Between the three, I can usually find a way to get something done. Then there's voiceover and Seeing AI on the iPhone which has actually helped me solve a few computer mysteries so that is handy as well.
I have been writing/recording music and doing audio work for years and have had great performance running either operating system on my Macs.
I would not want to go back to having two separate machines. (Although when Apple Silicon becomes the norm and bootcamp is retired, I may need to find another solution. We shall see!)
guitarandbooks 1 points 2y ago
I have owned various Macs for years now and am very happy with Windows 10 via bootcamp! (I started with Windows XP via bootcamp followed by Windows seven so have been bootcamping for quite a while now!)
I love having both operating systems on the same machine and being able to run them both natively.
I love having both operating systems on the same machine and being able to run them both natively.
bradley22 0 points 2y ago
What ever you do, I’d recommend buying your own system.
ktwounds 0 points 3y ago
as a VI user I dont like mac at all, I have had both and have bootcamped a mac, windows is just easier for me to modify to fit my needs. Also the price point is way lower.
322lancer [OP] 2 points 3y ago
Appreciate the input:)
ktwounds 1 points 3y ago
if you really want both a mac mini is cheaper and the boot-camp processes isn't that hard, I would get a USB hub though, the mini is serviceable but it does lack in a GPU (im not sure you need one) and doesn't have the ports for allot of peripherals. Good Luck.
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