Is Linux a desktop operating system?

[Eric S. Johansson]

paul cooke wrote:
> ah, but in the speech recognition field they have a big problem. Microsoft did 
> a technology swap with Lernout & Hauspie and got the rights to use the L&H 
> tech in Office. Ever since Office 2K2 came out, there has been no need for 
> anyone using it to actually go out and get a separate speech recognition 
> program as it's built in.

I'm not meaning to be an argumentative twit but...

general consensus among voicegroup regulars is that:
   accuracy is much lower than NS
   user interface is user hostile
   only works in word
   no specialized vocabularies (legal, medical)

there are mutterings about training failures but i can't recall them 
right now.  so, you are right that you don't need to go buy a separate 
SR program unless you want one that works.  ;-)

> http://www.microsoft.com/office/previous/xp/speech.asp
> 
> So Microsoft have effectively squashed that market, content merely to leave 
> Scansoft with the dregs. Scansoft haven't got a monopoly at all.

the ms prototype is not good enough for real work especially if you are 
handicapped.  NaturallySpeaking is still the way to go.  when MS gets 
better, they will became not a competitor but another monopoly.

some days I think that MS is showing speech recognition in a bad light 
to kill the market for scansoft.  but they don't need to bother, 
scansoft is doing a fine job killing the market themselves.
> 
> ps. Microsoft would have the world and his dog believe that they developed 
> it... well, all they developed was fully integrating it into Office so that 
> the L&H origins were hidden. But open up the help about option and there you 
> will see the true origins of it.

well, L&H is also telling a big fat lie unless they mention dragon 
system as the real progenitor.

--- eric