To begin with Supernova is Dolphin's combined magnification and speech version, if youo don't use magnification then their Hal version is less expensive. A lot of places might use Supernova because they can install it and forget about it, it will cover everyone in a single package.

As to which is better, that's personal preference. It also depends which you learned to use first to some extent.

If you wanted popularity though as the topic title suggested then I think Jaws and Window Eyes are most common, with Hal/Supernova doing well outside of the US. I gather Voice Over is getting more popular as well.

Regional variations always exist, in everything not just screen readers. Dolphin being based here in Britain doesn't hurt, they probably have a better ability to promote their product among institutions and so on. They're also well positioned for European markets too, something tells me they've taken advantage of this though I could be wrong.

I suppose being based in such a big single market as the US makes you think in a US-centric way, whereas Dolphin would have to deal with a more scattered market. The end result is probably that Dolphin are in a more stable position because their eggs aren't all in one basket.

satogo is free? vow! what a!

Yep, dolphin being in England has helped, ---- and the fact that their based in the same town which houses one of the largest specialized secondary schools for blind kids probably doesn't hurt either.

In fact I did first try Hal at secondary school myself (though I didn't go to said specialized school), and indeed th original license for the copy of Hal I'm using right now was first bought out of my university grant, ---- though i's been umpgraded many times sinse then.

"out of the box" I meant "outside the box" Ie, using screen reading programs with random things they weren't originally intended for, ---- like the smugglers games.

On the mac front, as well as the cost issue, ---- which I looked into myself and does actually exist, for me, there are too many things I run which require windows, ---- or even doss, --- everything from audio games running the net framework, to some now freeware versions of old graphical games like prince of persia which have been configured to run via dosbox with a handy windows front end, ---- to actually fully doss orientated stuff like Eamon delux, fallthru etc, ---- not to mention winamp with many pluggins for random game music formats (though I would guess there's probably a mac port of winamp).

This is also why I've not upgraded windows from xp, ---- and I probably won't until my pc explodes, ---- and hopefully there will be some good solutions to run these things on windows 7 by then.

narrator can certainly be used to play with windows innards, ---- also, hal is nice enough to run under most circumstances, ----- even when windows is insisting on running with default settings and no access to user accounts.

While I don't despute the advantage of macs having their own screen reader in built, ----- Hal (and probably other screen readers), are so secure about running now in various circumstances, it doesn't make as much difference as it might have done 15 years ago, when Hal, ---- and possible other screen readers too, were very dependent on a set environment to run, and if you deviated from that you'd be in trouble!

If you buy a Mac, you can install what you want. You can run Windows, Linux and of course Apples own operating system. You can both do this virtually and you can choose to split your harddrive up in partisions, so you choose what partision you wanna boot when you power it up.
Yeah. Mac computers are much more expensive, but you get a lot of accessibility for these money. You get Voiceover, which in many ways works much better than screenreaders in Windows does, you get speech when you insert your install disc and you get an absolutely stable operating system.
Windows and Mac is two different operating systems, and Mac is not build for games and fun stuff. Persontly, I've got 90% fewer issues after I've switched to Mac.
One thing I really like is that i can install Windows on my Mac virtually or on another partision if I wants to. That's what I'm going to do when my Windows labtop dies.

Well, enough Mac-stuff! Back to the Windows screenreader topic:

Yep. System Access to go is totally free, and if you choose to create an account, you can install a full version of System access on your computer for free using your account. This version works also when you're not connected to the internet because the program is installed on your pc. It's really awesome.
One thing I really like in System access is that it doesn't use the video intercept driver, which means it works on all computers with all kind of graphic cards.

NVDA is a great screenreader, but I find it very difficult to use the virtual cursor, mouse cursor or what's called. I can't find any info on the labtop layout in the documentation, and I've seen a lot of releases, where the documentation hasn't been updated. If someone can give me the labtop commands for the mouse pointer, I'll give it a try.

I like System access cause it's a very stable screenreader, the virtual cursor is much easier to use than the Jaws cursor and it works on all computers.

My problem is, ---- if the mac os isn't for games and fun stuff, ---- why would I want it?

I use my computer for four things:

1: writing my thesis, ---- which takes basic text editing in ms word or similar, pluss reading of the odd pdf or html document, ---- also storage and rereading of articals I have people read and record in mp3.

2: General net brousing and E-mail (E-mail is pretty important both for fun and keeping in touch with the uni, ----- I even submit my thesis draughts via E-mail).

3: Games.

4: downloading and listening to interesting audio and music.

5: Watching dvds, ---- currently I do this with power dvd.

Personally, my entire approach to information technology has been on a "I want to do X, ----- how much do I need to know to do X" basis.

If I ever decide to go heavily into sound mixing, writing my own games or something similar, ----- maybe having mac os available in some form would be useful, ----- but currently, ---- to be brutally honest, I don't see that I need it.