Hi,
I was recently reading a topic of 104 messages about the most popular and commonly used screen reader out there in the market today.
According to screen reader usage surveys and other credible sources, JAWS is the most commonly used screen reader, and NVDA and Window Eyes somewhat tie for the second place.
My point of furthering this discussion is to clear all the myths and factually incorrect information and arguments that have been placed here.
I, of course, side with NVDA, and have cogent reasons for the same. I would strongly encourage everyone reading my thread to give NVDA one shot, report what they find disadvantageous about it, and we NVDA users will try to assist you in mitigating that problem. Every software has its own set of limitations, and that is something all of us must accept about all our favourites, but still, I use and support NVDA all the way, because of many causes.
For now, let me clear up some misconceptions that have been posted, and which deserve detailed clarifications:
* JAWS voices VS NVDA voice
This pointer of JAWS being superior to NVDA because it being shipped with ETI Eloquence is absolutely irrelevant.
Firstly, text to speech engines are a subjective field, because one ear finds something more comprehensible while the other ear prefers something else.
To clearly state, NVDA comes pre-integrated with the free and open source speech synthesizer ESpeak, which has numerous advantages over ETI Eloquence, lightweight, incredibly responsive, supports over eighty languages (and many more unofficially), and is highly intelligible at great speech rates. On the other hand, JAWS comes pre-integrated with the proprietery and since long development abandoned speech synthesizer ETI Eloquence, which supports only a few languages, and is simply so called' natural sounding, human like and understandable.'
Many people, including me, absolutely love ESpeak and rely on NVDA to gain access to our numerous regional and native languages, but those who still like ETI Eloquence for their own reasons, why do you buy JAWS for thousand dollars, instead of simply the ETI Eloquence and Vocalizer for NVDA add-on by Code Factory for 59 euros? For more information about this, please visit http://codefactoryglobal.com/app-store/voices-for-nvda/
Not only ETI Eloquence and Vocalizer, you have a whole host of voices and speech synthesizer to use with NVDA, including Acapella, Festival, Esvok Peako, several regional language supporting ones, a detailed list of which speech synthesizers supported by NVDA can be viewed on NVDA's Get Extra Voices Wiki page at https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda/wiki/ExtraVoices

* NVDA borrowying keyboard shortcuts from JAWS and stealing functionality
To brief you about Windows screen reading history, JAWS for Windows was perhaps one of the first screen readers for Windows, along with Window Eyes and a few other products. JAWS for Windows was first launched in 1995, whereas NVDA was begun in April of 2006, and launched for the first time in December the same year. When JAWS, Window Eyes and other Windows screen readers had already created a comprehensive set of keyboard shortcuts for basic functions and commands, it is so obvious for NVDA developers to not try to reinvent wheels to be different and simply borrow the existing traidition. Additionally, there was no copyright infringement or anything of that sort when NVDA did this either, or else Freedom Scientific would have filed a law suit like it did for GW Micro in the past.
Also, Afrin, could you be a bit more elaborately specific while mentioning the features and functionalities that NVDA has copied of JAWS? Please don't include traditional screen reading features, which are analogous to wheels reinvention. Something that was original to JAWS, and which was copied by NVDA, and by no other screen reader, if you know what I mean. I am quite avidly involved in following NVDA's issue tracking system and may have some knowledge about the background of some prominent NVDA features.

* verbosity of lists, headings and other elements in NVDA
As has been already mentioned, I don't see why this verbosity is serving as a barrier to transition to NVDA from JAWS. The Document Formatting Settings dialog which can be accessed from NVDA menu > Preferences submenu or directly by pressing NVDA + Ctrl + D has all the options you need to configure the reporting of various web elements. There should be no problem about this whatsoever in NVDA, if there is, please let me know, I'll investigate it and file a ticket for it on NVDA's issue tracker if required.

* web accessibility of NVDA VS JAWS
I was extremely surprised and startled to read some comments saying that JAWS is better at the web than NVDA. Without a doubt, NVDA has traditionally, and continues to have, much better web accessibility and support for modern web standards, than JAWS. If you have read, NVDA is the only Windows screen reader that gives even experimental support for Microsoft's Edge browsing engine, although Edge has many accessibility defects and loopholes. The Internet and web browsing has been NVDA's advantage, and I would like to really know on which websites link activation has been a problem, and where JAWS has been reading more useful information than NVDA.

* Microsoft Office support of JAWS VS NVDA
JAWS has historically had older support for corporate environment application and the Microsoft Office suite. However, NVDA has really picked up in terms of Microsoft Office support and some corporate accessibility in the year 2014. Those who may have followed NVDA's development progress, and NVDA happenings itself, may be aware of the leaps NVDA took in terms of Microsoft Office support in 2014, and in 2015, NV Access even proudly shared on one interview and also the NV Access podcast that with Microsoft Office support, users were really happy and donations had gone up by 25%. Microsoft Powerpoint received a lot of work then, but for those who still watch NVDA evolve, a development team for India is working hard on improving NVDA's support for Excel and Word even further. Unfortunately, Microsoft Access remains to be NVDA's weakness, and I acknowledge that.

• NVDA Advantages
• NVDA is extremely lightweight and snappy, and the only Windows screen reader portable in its true sense. JAWS and Window Eyes simply have namesake portability, because a Freedom Scientific mirror display driver needs to be installed on any computer that wants to run JAWS, so a pre-requisite is involved in JAWS's so called portability, whereas NVDA can just be taken on any flashdrive, inserted on the computer, the corresponding file clicked, and NVDA fires up seemlessly.
• NVDA has a lot of community involvement. If you find something wrong in NVDA, or you want a feature to be added, you simply request it through the bug tracker, and it gets considered by the two lead developers from NV Access, and either they, or someone from the community who may be interested in your feature suggestion, or you yourself, if you have sufficient technical knowledge, can implement that feature into NVDA. On the other hand, JAWS is wholely in the hand of Freedom Scientific, thus NVDA owns the advantages and benefits of open source whereas JAWS doesn't.
• NVDA uses the universally known programming language Python for its add-ons, whereas Freedom Scientific has made its restrictive scripting language for writing JAWS scripts which needs to be learnt from scratch.
• NVDA has been localized in more than 40 languages by native speakers and community users from around the world, thus is truly localized and ubiquitous a program.
• At the end of the day, everyone may not indulge in piracy and illegalities, but yet wants to use a computer despite a visual impairment, but due to residence in a developing country does not have the finance or means to acquire thousand dollars to purchase a screen reader. That is where NVDA comes into the picture, NVDA, NVDA, NVDA long life to NVDA! In the past, economic affordability was NVDA's sole upside, but now, NVDA is at par, if not even better in several aspects than JAWS!
I am not trying to impose NVDA upon anyone, simply trying to prove that NVDA is not what you think it to be, a poor and incompetent free screen reader for an underprivileged person, it is something free indeed, originally meant for those in developing countries, but now higher, and more powerful than these so called better commercial alternatives. Please let me know if you have any further query or issue with NVDA, and we NVDA enthusiasts out here will try to assist you to resolve it at the earliest!
Best Regards,
Bhavya Shah

The resident advertisement expert.
You'd be better off telling this to the NFB and other blind institutions honestly. Because a lot of blind people go with what is being recommended to them by their schools etc. Not all of them, but I think that is why JAWS is so popular. Keep in mind that blind people who go on online platforms such as the playroom are not the only ones using a screen reader. The community who frequently associates with other people worldwide has largely switched to NVDA, but that really is only a small part of blind people with screen readers.
To me this is simply just another hello I think NVDA is better message, and we've had so many of them already. It is starting to seriously annoy me that some people feel the need to say why their screen reader is better literally everywhere. Sure if the discussion comes up, I don't see why you shouldn't state your opinion, but to create a topic about this just so you can say why other people are wrong?
And for the record, ESpeak used to make me die a little inside every time I heard it. I can kind of deal with it now, but I still prefer other synths (including eloquence!) You can use eloquence with NVDA too, but that's beside the point.

Yeah, stop it, now it feels like you're trying to forse NVDA onto people.

Hi,
Some responses...

'The resident advertisement expert.'
I know this wasn't intended as a compliment, but I'll thank you for it all the same.
'You'd be better off telling this to the NFB and other blind institutions honestly.'
Well, the opportunity hasn't come, otherwise I would have let them know about all this.
'Because a lot of blind people go with what is being recommended to them by their schools etc. Not all of them, but I think that is why JAWS is so popular.'
I agree. What you are trained with and used to generally is what you tend to continue using throughout. I sincerely anticipate that such organisations begin giving open source technology a more considerate look.
'Keep in mind that blind people who go on online platforms such as the playroom are not the only ones using a screen reader. The community who frequently associates with other people worldwide has largely switched to NVDA, but that really is only a small part of blind people with screen readers.'
I am not sure I exactly follow, but the user community online indeed is only a fraction of the actual user community.
Some more factual evidence to share is NVDA's daily usage statistics located at http://community.nvda-project.org/usersByCountry.html
whereas James Teh, one of the lead co-developers of NVDA shared two or so months ago that NVDA's download count had crossed the hundred thousand mark.
Having said that, I wasn't able to infer what you were trying to tell me.
'To me this is simply just another hello I think NVDA is better message, and we've had so many of them already. It is starting to seriously annoy me that some people feel the need to say why their screen reader is better literally everywhere. Sure if the discussion comes up, I don't see why you shouldn't state your opinion, but to create a topic about this just so you can say why other people are wrong?'
I am extremely apologetic for having created a new thread for the same. I wasn't active on the Playroom forum at the time this thread came up, but I felt it necessary to clear some mistakes in the information of the discussion, hence, created a new topic. I wasn't trying to prove that all JAWS users are wrong, simply trying to clarify some of the wrong things that were said throughout the discussion. Now, I have strove to say more than just 'NVDA is better', by providing some factual detail surrounding the discussion, i.e. I have tried to justify everything I tried to convey.

'And for the record, ESpeak used to make me die a little inside every time I heard it. I can kind of deal with it now, but I still prefer other synths (including eloquence!) You can use eloquence with NVDA too, but that's beside the point.'
As I stated earlier, text to speech engines are a very subjective field, and I am not at all surprised to know that ESpeak made you die a litttle. Personally, I would be even less surprised to know that ETI Eloquence hampered someone's productivity level. Speech synthesizers are totally a matter of choice and preference. All the same, I do not understand why ETI Eloquence's usability with NVDA is beside the point, when JAWS's one of the primary advantages is being considered as pre-integration with ETI Eloquence.
If questions or doubts persist, feel free to shoot them, as an avid NVDA user and enthusiast, I would be more than happy to assist you in any way I can. If you would like to stick to JAWS for your own reasons, I wish you great productivity with JAWS.

'Yeah, stop it, now it feels like you're trying to force NVDA onto people.'
Unfortunately, it seems you have misread my message, thus I am quoting myself, the bit that corelates to your complaint:
I am not trying to impose NVDA upon anyone, simply trying to prove that NVDA is not what you think it to be, a poor and incompetent free screen reader for an underprivileged person, it is something free indeed, originally meant for those in developing countries, but now higher, and more powerful than these so called better commercial alternatives. Please let me know if you have any further query or issue with NVDA, and we NVDA enthusiasts out here will try to assist you to resolve it at the earliest!
I hope the above clarifies the purpose of my posting what I posted, imposition of screen readers on people is what I want last.
Best Regards,
Bhavya Shah

Bavya, keyboard shortcuts are enough for a part, and many features, worth mentioning OCR, options regarding characters and words, reading modes, system web navigation, jaws traditional insert key, speech options, duel language support, and so on. If you are following NVDA since version 2014, these features were copied earlier.
Jaws, without any doubtfulness, offers the best and most solid support for microsoft products, and especially office. The saddest news for NVDA is that it never, in any way or another, can be compared in terms of web navigation to jaws. The reason is simple, because jaws offers two modes that do not exist in NVDA. the first is touch cursor mode which has significantly improved web navigation and has made buttons and other elements fairly accessible. The other one, recently introduced in jaws 17 is called smart navigation, and it is designed to make simpler complex webpages.
As far as I have tried both, jaws serves a better performance in windows explorer and generally internet. In reading notifications and tool tips, jaws wins again. In general, jaws offers a better support for programs that have no accessibility implementation.
However, NVDA has an advantage which is mouse support. But it lags, especially on touchpads on laptops. As long as they do not implement gestures, it will be relatively useless.

To the original poster. This was really over the top, advertising about it, and in the way you do is not going to change people. People won't just go over to NVDA just because you say so. People use what is comfortable for them. There is nothing wrong with that, choice is important. I'm using NVDA and I don't like it much, but for the moment I tolerate it. I do think e-speak is horoble, am using an addon of elequence, although it does cut out sometimes. Anyway, I think there are quite enough topics about NVDA.

Hello,

Personally I do think NVDA is not as crappy as it seemt to be when listening his frigtful ESpeak sinthesizer which, in fact, needs to be changed by something better like the new voice synth; I don't know if they are still developing it now. I knew ESpeak when I was next to some blind little girls, and we couldn't understand it easier; and that won't change never. However, the first time I knew NVDA I didn't like it. Then I wanted to give it a chance for some of those weird things of our lives. There are things that a screen reader has that you won't find in the other, but if otherwise they are included, they're a copy of the first ones made by the other screen reader. And that is when we can say that FreedomScientific is slow in JAWS' development, 'cause they just update JAWS once a year, while NVDA does it more offen.

Nevertheless and to my liking, I think that JAWS has a better keyboard mode than NVDA, the laptop keyboard. At least since I got used to it, it sometimes results even harder to use NVDA for obvious reasons. Another thing I hate from NVDA like other users is when browsing on the web. While JAWS announces the content smootly, NVDA does suddenly and sometimes it's hard to read some webpages, specially if they include lists, links or regions.

On the other hand, one of the few good thing that I think NVDA has is the object navigation and that sometimes there are some web pages which I can use better than when doing it so in JAWS, the portability mode and a better suport for audiogames specially for those made in BGT. Let's not forget also about the used option in order to connect two computers, which is better than JAWS tandem itself.

Some people can feel more confortable with the NVDA shortcuts, the way it reads the web content, the better support in JAWS for Microsoft software, etc; then noone is obliged to change the things if they are already working fine.

Anyway if you feel better using JAWS or NVDA, it's up to you, nothing else. Then in conclusion, you can be what you wanna be, do what you wanna do, say what you wanna say, and use the screen reader you wanna use. That's it. Regards.

Arial15,
You are incorrect. Jaws is actually updated periodically throughout the year with patch updates so your claim that its only updated once a year is false.

Thanks for that information. However, remember that most people just download a single version with a crack, so we miss those new updates that those rich users can enjoy, or at least those who do have a legal license. Thanks.

Hi all,
I am sincerely apologetic for the delays in responses, other things caught me up a bit in recent days.
Anyways, responses in-line:
Afrim,
I cannot but initiate my response with utmost gratitude for the constructive and straightforward nature of your response. I am completely glad that you have actually simply responded to my questions and put forward some valid (but invalidatable, read on for more of course :D grin) points for your stand. Thanks a bunch!

'Bavya, keyboard shortcuts are enough for a part, and many features, worth mentioning OCR, '
If I am not wrong, please do correct me if I am, recently, Window Eyes 9.3 also integrated an in built OCR functionality, so NVDA cannot be called solely copying in this respect.

'options regarding characters and words, '
Well, keyboard echo has become a standard screen reading option almost across all platforms and all screen readers.

'reading modes, '
I am not exactly sure what reading modes refers to, I am sorry I did not follow this part.

'system web navigation, '
I am not exactly sure what this means either, but if you are talking about general Internet browsing support, the Elements/Links list, quick navigation and single letter navigation keys, all that has become almost standard screen reader features.

'jaws traditional insert key,'
I don't agree with this either. Screen reader modifiers are also pretty standard options now.

' speech options,'
Pretty much screen reader standard now, if you can point out something specific, that NVDA has solely borrowed.

' duel language support,'
I thoroughly disagree here. By language support, do you mean synthesizer language support or translation language support? In any case, NVDA has exclusive automatic language switching support, which I believe JAWS doesn't, for the ESpeak synthesizer only at the moment, but universal automatic language switching based on document langauge markup is a feature under development, that was postponed from being integrated in 2015.4 due to some end moment critical reports. Localization is also an aspect where NVDA clearly wins, the community can themselves contribute in providing translations, contact their respective regional langauge translators with feedback and suggestions, and NVDA has more global coverage in terms of translation as compared to JAWS, I would say quite unquestionably.

' and so on. If you are following NVDA since version 2014, these features were copied earlier.'
Well, now I would like to clear up a little bit about pre-2014 copies.
Many of the features you have mentioned and said NVDA has copied from JAWS, as I have mentioned have become kind of screen reader standards. Since JAWS has eleven years of experience more than NVDA, it is bound to be innovators of many screen reader standard features, including many of what you have mentioned. I have called them standardized screen reading functionality because if you observe, not only NVDA, but for instance, Window Eyes and Orca also has many of it the same, and handles much of it the same way, not to copy JAWS, but to integrate these basic and standardized screen reading features, that with due credit and my highest respects, must be credited to Freedom Scientific JAWS for originating and innovating.

'Jaws, without any doubtfulness, offers the best and most solid support for microsoft products, and especially office. '
Okay, I am willing to agree here. But, it cannot be denied that NVDA came a long way in Microsoft Office support in 2014, and the Indian development team of NVDA is also working hard on further improving it. Just in case anyone wishes to perhaps send a few feature requests or bug reports particularly about Microsoft Office problems, let me know and I will share with you the NVDA India team's e-mail address.

'The saddest news for NVDA is that it never, in any way or another, can be compared in terms of web navigation to jaws. The reason is simple, because jaws offers two modes that do not exist in NVDA. the first is touch cursor mode which has significantly improved web navigation and has made buttons and other elements fairly accessible. The other one, recently introduced in jaws 17 is called smart navigation, and it is designed to make simpler complex webpages.'
Smart navigation is a seemingly interesting addition in JAWS 17, but since I do not have practical usage with it, nor was able to clearly understand it fully from its documentation description, I frankly comment on it. In terms of touch cursor, I am not exactly sure what it is either, but in general, if you haven't explored NVDA well enough maybe, the various cursors in JAWS, may it be the JAWS cursor, the PC cursor, virtual cursor, invisible cursor, touch cursor, etc. can be replicated in NVDA by a combination of review cursor, system caret and focus, object navigation, and the three review modes.
I am sorry that I wasn't able to satisfactorily counter argue the above due to lack of ellucidated information about these features of JAWS.
I have always considered NVDA better on the web accessibility front, because of reviews I have read of JAWS to NVDA switchers, those who keep NVDA installed as a secondary screen reader who found that NVDA identified a clickable element that JAWS didn't and thus find a reason to retain NVDA, an interview with Michael Curren in which too the interviewer was commenting on NVDA's web accessibility support very positively and joking about its completion, etc.

'As far as I have tried both, jaws serves a better performance in windows explorer and generally internet. In reading notifications and tool tips, jaws wins again. In general, jaws offers a better support for programs that have no accessibility implementation.'
I think that part of the experience may be slightly subjective, because at my end, I have found both NVDA and JAWS to be equally fine with Windows Explorer, Internet accessibility of course I have commented on earlier, and notifications and tooltips also work alright in NVDA (apart from help balloons maybe). Perhaps if you were unaware, the Object Presentation Setttings dialog of NVDA has some relevant options to tooltips. Also, if you could possibly list out a few programs with no in built accessibility implementation being supported by JAWS but not by NVDA...

'However, NVDA has an advantage which is mouse support. But it lags, especially on touchpads on laptops. As long as they do not implement gestures, it will be relatively useless.'
Yes, I believe JAWS does not have mouse tracking support, it is extremely helpful to monitor a sighted mouse user's activity on the computer. I, and as I stated earlier that this is most likely a subjective and varying experience, have never noticed a lag in NVDA. Also, I am a bit curious, what gestures should be implemented to make mouse tracking more useful, I am not sure I understood that bit.
All the same, the issue tracker of NVDA is open to all who may wish to request features, report bugs, make suggestions or such. There is no compulsion of course for JAWS users to help in improving NVDA, but I would only appeal to those who see potential in NVDA, to take that effort.
Concluding my response to you Afrim, again, heartiest thanks, for the only fully constructive response I have read yet in this topic.

Sound2,

'To the original poster. This was really over the top, advertising about it, and in the way you do is not going to change people.'
People only change if they find something interesting about something. I was simply trying to clarify some incorrect information and some doubts that were stated in the earlier topic.
Anyways, since advertising is something I have been accused of for the second time now, despite constants clarification, I am provoked to clarify it as well.
According to the Wordweb e-dictionary, advertise can be defined as 'Make publicity for; try to sell (a product).'
NVDA, being free, open source and community driven cannot be sold. Therefore, I see no commercial, monetary gain that would cause me to try and publicize NVDA. Only those will understand the value of such free, open source yet empowering assistive technology when, say in my case, I was brightened up with the possibility of resuming taking notes in a classroom by a laptop, and the cost of a commercial screen reader as JAWS served as an impediment, where NVDA came in as a boon, which I self-learnt. I won't say more about how I became to use NVDA, because at that time, JAWS was the screen reader that the NGO in my city trained students with.

' People won't just go over to NVDA just because you say so. People use what is comfortable for them. There is nothing wrong with that, choice is important.'
Very true, choice ant and diversity of options is essential, because only competition between multiple products generally primarily instigates innovation and improvement. Now, please point out to me, since I fail to locate, somewhere where I said that JAWS should be abandoned and only NVDA should be allowed to be developed or used, or that everyone should uninstall JAWS and only use NVDA, or something of that sort. I was, as I have reiterated time and again, just shedding light on some incorrect information previously shared.

' I'm using NVDA and I don't like it much, but for the moment I tolerate it. I do think e-speak is horoble, am using an addon of elequence, although it does cut out sometimes. Anyway, I think there are quite enough topics about NVDA.'
The number of topics about NVDA or JAWS does not Feel free to continue using JAWS if it serves you better, after all one's own productivity is of the greatest meaning, and one should be empowere with the correct information and be informed of the various tools available, so the most informed and judicious choice can be made.
You have many options apart from ESpeak, if you have actually purchased JAWS simply for ETI Eloquence pre-integration, I am sorry to say that your decision was unwise because you could have possibly got ETI Eloquence as well as Vocalizer in a package for NVDA for only 59 euros. If there are other reasons for choosing JAWS, which may certainly and acceptibly be valid, then it may be otherwise.

Aerial,

'Personally I do think NVDA is not as crappy as it seemt to be when listening his frigtful ESpeak sinthesizer which, in fact, needs to be changed by something better like the new voice synth; I don't know if they are still developing it now. I knew ESpeak when I was next to some blind little girls, and we couldn't understand it easier; and that won't change never. '
Simply because NVDA comes shipped in built with ESpeak and users find ESpeak unintelligible, one cannot really judge the whole of NVDA based on that. Apart from trying out other speech synthesizers, there are also so many ESpeak variants, as they are called, if anyone has tried those, and I use something called as Steph, and its related Steph_test 1 and Steph 3, which aren't in official NVDA, but some community members made it and I liked it and sometimes circulate it with my NVDA user friends.

'However, the first time I knew NVDA I didn't like it. Then I wanted to give it a chance for some of those weird things of our lives. There are things that a screen reader has that you won't find in the other, but if otherwise they are included, they're a copy of the first ones made by the other screen reader. And that is when we can say that FreedomScientific is slow in JAWS' development, 'cause they just update JAWS once a year, while NVDA does it more offen.'
A second chance, that you gave NVDA, is what I appreciate. The JAWS development regularity is something I will address later.

'Nevertheless and to my liking, I think that JAWS has a better keyboard mode than NVDA, the laptop keyboard. At least since I got used to it, it sometimes results even harder to use NVDA for obvious reasons. '
Incidentally, I too use NVDA's laptop keyboard layout mode in NVDA, and in the rare cases with JAWS, the laptop layout too, but I find NVDA's layout more intuitive, not that JAWS is unintuitive, but I am able to issue key commands with NVDA more snappily. Another thing I may attribute as a subjective experience, and something that is what you get used to.
By the way, just in case you may be unaware, NVDA had a major laptop keyboard layout rewamp back in 2013, so if you haven't tried NVDA since then, you might want to give NVDA's revised laptop keyboard layout another shot, which is supposedly more efficient, intuitive and snappy. I say supposedly because I never had sufficient experience with the older layout.

'Another thing I hate from NVDA like other users is when browsing on the web. While JAWS announces the content smootly, NVDA does suddenly and sometimes it's hard to read some webpages, specially if they include lists, links or regions.'
I find it interesting to read reports here that conflict with the reviews I have read and heard elsewhere. Any which ways, the Document Formatting Settings dialog may be something for you to explore and fiddle a bit more with.

'On the other hand, one of the few good thing that I think NVDA has is the object navigation and that sometimes there are some web pages which I can use better than when doing it so in JAWS, the portability mode and a better suport for audiogames specially for those made in BGT. Let's not forget also about the used option in order to connect two computers, which is better than JAWS tandem itself.'
Your second chance has indeed allowed you to analyse the balanced advantages of the two screen readers, and such judicious comparisons are what I appreciate and which lead to that individual's own informed choice.

Basket,
'You are incorrect. Jaws is actually updated periodically throughout the year with patch updates so your claim that its only updated once a year is false.'
Technically speaking, you are factually right. However, the periodic monthly JAWS updates only generally fix bugs and provide minor patches. The major feature rich update is annual only, whereas NVDA's is quarterly.

Best Regards,
Bhavya Shah

thank you for this post I'll not use bad words for people who can't understand many things which you wrote here thank you a lot for this post so happy to see it best vishes from me

Hi, original poster, you implied that NVDA was superior to jaws, that's all I'll say on that subject. Lastly, could you please please please, just reply, and not coppy all our posts, it takes a long time to read through.

Indeed, I actually skipped over most of what he said looking for anything worth while and couldn't find anything.

@ omniscienttechnowizard: First I clearly stated in one of my posts that I've been using Jaws all my life, so personally imo why would you change your screen reader after like 10 years? Second, again imo why should someone use something that they can't understand 85% of the times? K I admit I may not have 100% Knowledge all things NVDA, But for me, I'll just use what's working for me thank you. And as for the whole language aspect, personally for me I only need English so I honestly couldn't care less.

Hi all,
Delija,
Incomprehension is the main barrier in communication, and if it is not incomprehension, then it is deliberate misunderstanding by some. Thank you for your words of encouragement.

Sound2,
Yes, I did imply that NVDA is superior to JAWS in certain aspects, and in others, like Microsoft Office support, JAWS may have an edge to it. However, the overall conclusion of which screen reader is better on the whole, is very subjective from person to person and their individualized requirements, and I am none to judge what is best for others, simply sharing information, clearing misconceptions, and the factually erroneous statements made., so that people can make the most judiciously informed decision for themselves.

Basket,
It is unfortunate you could find nothing of use. I would attribute it either to your deliberate will to try to not digest anything I say, or as a general unjustified critique being passed around, as I have observed from your views on my messages and postings in the past too. That is a very personal topic that must not be brought again on the forum.

Starling_united,
As I have mentioned previously, habituation and comfort also influences your utility choice, and it is perfectly okay and wise for you to continue using JAWS, more so because it works as you want it to, has the synthesizer you want to use, and gives you the language support you require. In your case, there may not really be something in NVDA worth your interest, and there isn't any compulsion either put forward from me or anyone else that everyone should only use NVDA, and abandon JAWS or something like that, but there are certain points that people have put up against NVDA, which have factual errors, and could misguide some people from avoiding NVDA, which I was trying to rectify.

Conclusively, this topic is not going in the direction I had intended it to. Most startlingly, I am quite perplexed as to why a single posting of mine caused so much of contraversy among some JAWS users, and a 104 messages long thread wasn't. Anyways, I am glad that at least a few of the postings were quite constructive and debatable, which I am thankful for.
As I have explicitly stated time and again before, no one is compelled to switch to NVDA if JAWS works okay for them, but I shall make it a point to let no misinformation to be spreaded about the capabilities of NVDA, which intentionally or inadvertently did come up in the recent related thread, which is precisely why I created this clarification message and topic.
On that note, may JAWS work lifelong for you, and even Window Eyes, System Access or something else you may be using, but I will continue with NVDA, my own matter of preference and requirements.
I think a topic creator can close it, and I will try so, but if I am unable to do so, I hope some administrator may get to doing it.

Best Regards,
Bhavya Shah
P.S. I know the unpopularity of my English writing. Sadly, I cannot promise any changes I can make in it, because it is pretty formal and good for my liking, and I use it very effectively elsewhere - both virtually and in real life. I hope you may persist comprehending my sometimes convoluted vocabulary, but try to understand it, at least avoid false claims of complete incomprehension.

omniscienttechnowizard,
I would like to take this opportunity to remind you of the very first policy we have in place. "•No spam or advertisements."
your post and all subsequent forum postings is leading further and further into advertisement and endorsement of NVDA. As I quoted above, this is against policy and should you wish to continue on this path that you are on, I will be forced to shut down the topic.

Thank you.

Hey, calm down guys! I really cannot understand why you reacted to Bhavya’s message in this aggressive way. To be honest, I quite appreciate what he did because he gave some really useful information and also let me know about the advantages of NVDA. This cannot be at all called an advertisement but a great Piece of information! Well done Bhavya!
Anyways, there is no use in continuing this discussion, but still I strongly request not to shut down this topic because I would like this valuable piece of information to be available for other users too, who might possibly be interested in this topic as well.

Hi all,
Basket,
Again, an occurrence of lack of sufficiently careful reading.
With reference to your pointing about me violating by spamming and advertising on the forum, I shall quote myselves, from a message I had posted earlier on this same topic:
'Anyways, since advertising is something I have been accused of for the second time now, despite constants clarification, I am provoked to clarify it as well.
According to the Wordweb e-dictionary, advertise can be defined as 'Make publicity for; try to sell (a product).'
NVDA, being free, open source and community driven cannot be sold. Therefore, I see no commercial, monetary gain that would cause me to try and publicize NVDA. Only those will understand the value of such free, open source yet empowering assistive technology when, say in my case, I was brightened up with the possibility of resuming taking notes in a classroom by a laptop, and the cost of a commercial screen reader as JAWS served as an impediment, where NVDA came in as a boon, which I self-learnt. I won't say more about how I became to use NVDA, because at that time, JAWS was the screen reader that the NGO in my city trained students with.'
And about me spamming, if one's intention was to create spam, one would have far better means to spam than taking effort to compose lengthy messages to clarify misinformation. And it stumps me how one message intended with goodwill was stipulated as such when a 104 message long topic was not even questioned, not that I personally am against that topic, the original intentions of that topic too were free from any sense of imposition.
And about shutting down the topic, I will quote my last message.
'I think a topic creator can close it, and I will try so, but if I am unable to do so, I hope some administrator may get to doing it.'
If, and only if, you had cared to read my messages more wholely and try to understand the inner meaning and message I was trying to convey, you may have had understood more, and discovered these messages and avoided these unnecessary reiterations. Thus, I would like a Playroom helper or administrator, to maybe close this topic, reasons mentioned explicitly and elaborately in my previous message.

Ceyda,
Well, thanks for your understanding. I had requested for the topic to be closed for I had initially thought that a topic closure would only prevent it from being commented on or replied to again. If closing in fact means completely deleting a topic from its traces of existence, my humblest request would be to not further comment, and just let this remain as it is...
Due to receit of a further comment, I will not further comment publicly, simply send a clarification to the respective person privately. I would not like to further the direction this thread is taking.
Best Regards,
Bhavya Shah

I see plenty of commercials on the radio about non-profit organizations, do you not call them advertisements either? I strongly suggest that you do try not to take everything literally and just look at the dictionary, and instead also focus on everyday speech. It would show you that advertising can be a lot of other things too.

I sware NVDA should hire you to head there marketing and public relations department. You'd be great!

To clarify, closing a topic would only prevent further replies to the post. It would not delete the post or the content.

Hi all,
Basket,
I take no responsibility of these additional comments coming in with sarcasm and frankly somewhat offensive messages, because my plea is extended to not further respond. If you may want to re-issue your notice to folks to not further this topic, and accept my gentle request to let this topic remain open and available for anyone who may want to view it in the future, please do so, or close the topic, whichever course of action deems wiser to the Playroom helper and administration team.

Raki,
I understand that wasn't a compliment, but taking that as one, I must just say for sake of information, NV Access, the Australian based organisation behind NVDA consists of only three people, two lead developers, one of who also runs the organisation as it is, and the third involved in other organisational and miscellaneous tasks. There is no Marketings & Public Relations department as such in NV Access. I sure know you weren't asking for this information, but thought of passing it along - a little bit about NV Access' organisational structure any which ways.

Editing this message on receit of Mayank Sir's message:
Mayank Sir,
Thanks indeed for the clarification. Please do close this topic then, if mutually agreeable it is as a decision.
Best Regards,
Bhavya Shah

This is gone in a completely different direction. We're closing this topic now.