What's in it for Microsoft to bother with such a move?

Do they sell more copies of Windows? Very very marginally, perhaps. They
seem to be giving Windows away for nothing these days anyway.

Will they gain market share over the competiton (ie: Apple)? I don't think so
- Apple has a very good screen reader built in to iOS, and people who like
Apple will continue to use Apple; those who like Windows will continue to use
Windows.

No, NV Access doesn't need to be bought by Microsoft - it needs investment
from a company which can get NVDA used by the big corporates and public sector
who currently pay for JAWS licences, but could do so much better with an open
source licence-free solution.

As with all open source software, the market is in support, not in supplying
it in the first place (look at Red Hat and their business model). Microsoft
has nothing to gain by acquiring NV Access, but someone with a brand name
behind them (so that they get taken seriously by large employers) and the
facilities to provide support for NVDA could do very well, both for themselves
and for NV Access.


Well, that's my opinion, anyway.


Antony.

--
A user interface is like a joke.
If you have to explain it, it didn't work.

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