I’ve used Dragon Naturally Speaking (from Nuance) off and on over the years. It seems that I’ve always had a computer that was near the lower limits of what’s needed for it.
Recently, I purchased a new Dell Studio XPS. It has a 2.93 GHz Core-i7 processor. For their current version, Nuance recommends at least a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4, or a 1.6 GHz dual core processor. I figured that my processor (and it’s 12 gig of RAM) would make using Naturally Speaking a dream.
I started the install and got a message stating that the operating system is not supported. I then found the following in the FAQs for Naturally Speaking.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 and 10 cannot be installed on 64-bit Windows XP/Vista operating systems and will prompt the user with an error message stating the operating system is not supported.** Update as of September 2008 ** Support for 64-bit operating systems is a common request from Dragon customers. As you may know, 64-bit operating systems represent a relatively small percentage of the operating system market, but that market segment is growing rapidly. Users of 64-bit operating systems know firsthand that many programs on the market do not support that operating environment at this point. Products like Dragon are especially complex to support in this kind of environment. We are committed to supporting Windows Vista 64 in the future, but we have not announced the date.
Note: Dragon Naturally Speaking can be installed on systems using 64-bit processors where a 32-bit OS is used.
Wow. I was shocked. Could this really be the case? I called, it is. They won’t even run as a 32-bit app…very disappointed.
I was told that they “should” have an update out by the end of this quarter…or maybe the end of next quarter.
I found an article on the Ziff-Davis site that says in Q2/2008 20% of the Vista-based PCs sold had the 64-bit edition. Overall, of the Vista systems out there, only about 5% have 64-bit.
With the cost of memory coming down and triple-channel RAM, the 4 gig limit of a 32-bit OS seems a little confining.
Come on Nuance, step up to the plate and join the rest of use and welcome in a 64-bit world!
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Update 2009-03-04
I applied to be a beta tester for the 64-bit version of NaturallySpeaking. I received and installed the beta over the weekend, and went through several of the test cases they included. I’ve got to say, I’m very impressed. It’s fast, of course that could be my Core i7, and accurate.
I’ll start using for posts shortly.
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Update 2009-07-30
I received and installed the production version of Dragon Naturally Speaking 10.1 for 64-bit. It works very well, just like the beta. I’m very pleased, but I do wish they had supported it sooner.