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People get strongly attached to speech synthesizers, even (especially?) the old robotic-sounding ones, whether they're using it to speak for them (as with Hawki

People get strongly attached to speech synthesizers, even (especially?) the old robotic-sounding ones, whether they're using it to speak for them (as with Hawking) or read to them (e.g. blind people). I know a blind guy who was so attached to the ETI-Eloquence synthesizer (developed in the 90s) that, to use it on his Mac, he did a hack involving the WINE Win32 compatibility layer. Some blind people favor the more robotic-sounding synths in general because those tend to be better at high speeds than the more natural-sounding voices based on real recordings. The lesson is that software companies shouldn't be quick to kill an old product or let it die just because they have a newer one that they think is better. Edit: Perhaps the next generation of blind techies will become attached to something open-source, like espeak-ng (which ships with the NVDA screen reader for Windows). Then, if they want it frozen in time at version X, that will be feasible.

lisper 8y ago
> software companies shouldn't be quick to kill an old product or let it die just because they have a newer one that they think is better OMG, so very much this! The problem is that there was a very brief period of time in the early days of the development of the computer (by which I mean like 1975-1995 or so) when just about everything new was an improvement. That implanted the idea in people's heads that NEW==GOOD because it was (mostly) true for about 20 years. But nowadays technology has matured and it is no longer invariably true. I have a five-year-old MacBook pro running Mavericks that I much prefer to anything on the market today.
bitwize 8y ago
Interesting. Hawking appears to have preferred his old CallText for similar reasons to why I prefer chunky old bitmap fonts in my terminal windows rather than something like Consolas: One part nostalgia, and one part noise-robustness. > The lesson is that software companies shouldn't be quick to kill an old product or let it die just because they have a newer one that they think is better. I wish Microsoft had stopped trying to "improve" Windows after Windows 95, UI-wise. Maybe port it to the NT kernel and offer support for modern hardware like GPUs and USB, but that's it. Too many of their improvements to the experience aren't, really.
- qubex 8y ago
  I‘d be delighted with a Windows 10 kernel and technology stack sporting a Windows 2000 GUI. That represents the nostalgic apex for me. XP’s default ”Fisher Price” skin was when things turned sour.
- _emacsomancer_ 8y ago
  Would ReactOS (https://www.reactos.org/ https://www.reactos.org/) address any of your Windows complaints?

lisper 8y ago

> software companies shouldn't be quick to kill an old product or let it die just because they have a newer one that they think is better OMG, so very much this! The problem is that there was a very brief period of time in the early days of the development of the computer (by which I mean like 1975-1995 or so) when just about everything new was an improvement. That implanted the idea in people's heads that NEW==GOOD because it was (mostly) true for about 20 years. But nowadays technology has matured and it is no longer invariably true. I have a five-year-old MacBook pro running Mavericks that I much prefer to anything on the market today.

bitwize 8y ago

Interesting. Hawking appears to have preferred his old CallText for similar reasons to why I prefer chunky old bitmap fonts in my terminal windows rather than something like Consolas: One part nostalgia, and one part noise-robustness. > The lesson is that software companies shouldn't be quick to kill an old product or let it die just because they have a newer one that they think is better. I wish Microsoft had stopped trying to "improve" Windows after Windows 95, UI-wise. Maybe port it to the NT kernel and offer support for modern hardware like GPUs and USB, but that's it. Too many of their improvements to the experience aren't, really.

qubex 8y ago
I‘d be delighted with a Windows 10 kernel and technology stack sporting a Windows 2000 GUI. That represents the nostalgic apex for me. XP’s default ”Fisher Price” skin was when things turned sour.
_emacsomancer_ 8y ago
Would ReactOS (https://www.reactos.org/ https://www.reactos.org/) address any of your Windows complaints?