Bill wrote: snip, I am certainly not interested to argue with Phil or others
who support his view. In the end, I respect everyone's prerogative to
choose the option that best suits their situation, comfort level and budget.
Phil replied: as do I ;-)
Bill wrote: That being said, here are some important things to keep in mind
as you make your decision.
As far as future-proofing, consider that David Pinto could not continue
development of his CakeTalking scripts mainly because some executives at
cakewalk Music Software ordered a complete makeover of Sonar's user
interface. That decision made Sonar's screen look really cool to sighted
users while breaking virtually every script David had coded over more than a
decade of development. Scripts for Samplitude or any other third-party
application always run the risk of a decision by a third-party manufacturer
breaking or limiting functionality. In other words, future accessibility is
never guaranteed as long as we are subject to the consequences of
development decisions by mainstream manufacturers.
Phil replied: which was most unfortunate and a number of us including Bill
and myself did advocate hard for this situation to be remedied. Sadly it
was not.
Bill wrote: Scripts for Samplitude or any other third-party application
always run the risk of a decision by a third-party manufacturer breaking or
limiting functionality. In other words, future accessibility is never
guaranteed as long as we are subject to the consequences of development
decisions by mainstream manufacturers.
Phil replied: that's true unless you have people such as myself, Steve
Spamer and Len working directly with the development team over at Magix.
Further more, Magix have an on going development to accessibility and the
core Samplitude application does not change in updates. As more features
are added accessibility is incorporated and the scripts for Samplitude are
free so you have nothing to lose by giving them a try.
Bill wrote: For example, those of you who follow accessibility to notation
software may remember that a lot of people are using Dan Rugman's scripts
for Sibelius 5 which is now a few versions old. Those users have found
something that works for their needs despite the fact that the current
shipping version of Sibelius is, I believe, 7.5.
Phil comments yes and people are using later versions of said software with
the NVDA screen reader.
Bill wrote: The good news for Dancing Dots' customers who use our Lime
notation software to create print scores is that Dancing Dots now owns the
rights to Lime.
That means that future versions will only get even more accessible. We need
not script on top of the application but can make changes directly to it.
Phil replied: and that will be good for all.
Bill wrote: But back to discussion of CakeTalking and SONAR: I asked our
friend, DJX, to comment about ongoing support from Microsoft for Windows 7
and the hardware still available to those who want to use SONAR 8.5.3 and
CakeTalking 8.8. Note that he projects support through at least 2022 which
addresses Phil's concern that Microsoft will stop issuing security updates a
couple years from now. When it comes to anything related to computer
hardware and software, five years is quite a long time.
Phil replied: agreed but I am still not recommending anyone go the Sonar
8.5.3 rout which is now 12 years old (an even longer time in software
development as we now have VST3 and 64 bit rewire support which Sonar 8.5.3
does not support. There could also be issues using such a low screen
resolution in Sonar 8.5.3 as 1024 X768 with third party software as some of
this software will not run on such a low screen resolution. Also I don't
recommend Sonar 8.5.3 any more as there are other options available which
sound sonically far superior.
Bill wrote: Here is DJX's reply to me:
"Windows7 will continue to be updated by Microsoft through 2022 for PC's
running processors and motherboards that predate release of the kaby lake
processor/platform. Regarding new technologies, Microsoft is still updating
windows, such that you can use NVME (non-Volatile Memory Express) drives,
USB3.1/c, Thunderbolt and new EFI features with it, and they are doing full
support and updates on all hardware previous to kaby lake, including the x99
platform, which is actually the preferred high-end daw platform for
Windows7. This means updates are still rolling out for Windows, and that
Intel is still updating firmware and hardware drivers for all its prekaby
platforms to continue supporting Windows 7. Moreover, Windows 7 is still the
OS of choice in the enterprise sector, so you can be sure that Microsoft is
not going to stop releasing security updates or patching the OS
vulnerabilities; they've even moved windows 7 to the same update system as
Windows 10, where security updates are released as monthly rollups, which
makes the whole update process easier and faster. So while technology is
moving on, that doesn't mean you have to drop what you currently have or
what works to jump on the bleeding edge."
Phil comments according to Microsoft "Note the IOCTL_SCSI_MINIPORT_FIRMWARE
control code is not implemented in Windows 7 SP1 or Windows Server 2008 R2
SP1. Therefore, you cannot update the
Firmware on NVME devices that are running these operating systems. The
control code was made available starting from Windows 8.1."
Phil continues: this may or may not be an issue for anyone using MVME
devices.
From:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/13853/windows-lifecycle-fact-sheet
According to Microsoft, Windows 7 will be supported through the 31st of
October 2021. We have already hit the End of sales for PCs with Windows
preinstalled: October 31, 2016 so I wouldn't be buying into this now.
PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE!
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