And the notebook choice is...

After my previous blog entry on considerations for a new notebook, and the various comments I received, I have made up my mind as to my choice of notebook, and, like most big purchases, it came down to my needs, much more so for when I am traveling/out and about, as opposed to when I'm at home.

One of the most important needs for my notebook when traveling is doing audio work, whether it be editing, processing, or even some light multi-track recording. At home, I use a 22" widescreen monitor, which allows me to use many of the various Linux audio applications available to do such work, with not too much trouble. This is still not 100% efficient, due to me having to use magnification for some tasks to be able to fully utilize the application. However, when I am out somewhere, and have time/the need to do such work, I simply can't do so, due to a smaller screen size and magnification either not performing as well, or not being able to magnify enough and stil see enough in the screen image to perform a task.

While Linux audio applications are useful, they are for the vast majority, inaccessible when one attempts to use them with GNOME accessibility technologies. This is partly because a lot of these applications use the QT/KDE GUI toolkit, which doesn't have the same accessibility as GTK applications. The GTK applications themselves often have a lot of custom widgets, which need to be accessibility enabled, i.e extra calls to the relevant pieces of accessibility infrastructure have to be made to make them visible to the GNOME accessibility technologies such as orca. Tab order/navigation between widgets also has to be correct, and the user then has to know the context of the widgets they are moving between. While I know what has to be done to address such GTK application issues, I don't see myself having enough time in the near future to fix these, and if I did, I would spend more time fixing the applications, as opposed to doing the audio work I need to get done.

It is for the above reason, that at least for now, I am willing to pay for some audio applications on another OS platform, if it means I can be productive with audio when not at home. I know of various audio applications that are available, and somewhat accessible on Windows and OS X, some applications being more accessible than others, depending on the accessibility technology used to access them. Apple has included a built-in screen reader, similar to GNOME's accessibiliy technologies in design, as of 10.4 and later. I have found out about several audio applications that are accessible on OS X, thanks to various websites that people have made available with lists of accessible apps, as well as searching and talking to other blind OS X users who work with audio applications. If there is any cost for such applications, I believe it is reasonable for what I want to do, and the functionality of the application in question.

Windows on the other hand requires a different approach for audio. In order to do work in windows for more than 40 minutes at a time (40 minutes is a demo limitation for the screen reader), I would need to either update my Windows screen reader license to work with either Windows XP or vista, or buy the competing screen reader to do the same. Either solution would set me back a good $500-800 Australian dollars. Added to that, only one screen reader appears to have better support for audio applications, through third-party add-ons, again which I would have to pay for in some cases, just to use a particular application. There is also the issue of future versions of such windows applications breaking compatibility with screen readers and their addons, due to the screen scraping nature of windows screen readers and accessibility. (Windows screen readers physically process the video buffer to read what is on the screen)

Due to the above audio workflow accessibility issue, and comparing the various solutions available in terms of extra cost and long-term productivity, I decided to get a MacBook pro. I could get a MacBook, however the different build and finish of the pro in terms of buildquality, as well as the fact the macbook pro has an ExpressCard slot, are two things that appeal to me. Just like a Windows notebook, you get an OS with it, being OS X. However compared to Windows, you get a very powerful screen reader solution at the core of the OS, as well as many applications accessible out of the box, for the most part requiring no effort from the application authors. So far as I understand things, OS X also has a much more flexible audio subsystem in CoreAudio, with many applications being available to route/grab audio from one application into another. There is JACK for OS X as an example, which could very easily be used to send audio from an OS X application via JACK, accross the network into a Linux application, should I desire to do so.

There were other considerations that also made the choice more worthwhile. I like following the accessibility feature development, and application accessibility on other operating systems like Windows and OS X. Should there be some brand new compelling accessibility feature in OS X's future that needs checking out, I can do so with little effort, as I can be sure that the next half dozen releases of OS X, and maybe more, will still work on my MacBook Pro hardware. I also have plans for developing cross-platform entertainment/games applications for blind/vision impaired users, and I would really like to support OS X, dispite the smaller blind/vision impaired user base.

I feel I have made the right choice, but will know for sure once I have used it for 6 months or so for audio and other work. Comparing its specs to others on the market, I would have been paying a similar price anyway, so price is not an issue, in terms of comparison.

Now to getting Linux set up, and getting its support for intrepid up to 100% if needed. :)