Ask HN: What's the best alternative to Dragon NaturallySpeaking?

With VoiceBuddy:

- You can just focus on the content and speak naturally. It is extremely smart in applying punctuation and formatting.

- You don't need expensive Microphones to get good accuracy. The crappy microphone that comes with your laptop should be good enough.

For me Dragon was pretty much unusable without expensive microphone setup. And even then, it needed constant intervention for punctuation and formatting.

Here's an example of what I mean. In these tests, I just spoke the words, I did not dictate any punctuation. Mistakes annotated by ~

VoiceBuddy (with microphone built into my cheap Logitech Webcam): The color of animals is by no means a matter of choice. It depends on many considerations, but in the majority of the cases tends to protect the animal from danger by rendering it less conspicuous. Perhaps it may be said that if coloring is mainly protective, there are to be but few brightly colored animals. There are, however, not a few cases in which vivid colors are themselves protective. The kingfisher itself, though so brightly colored, is by no means easy to see. The blue harmonizes with the water and the bird, as it darts along the stream, and looks almost like a flash of sunlight.

Dragon 15.6(with the same microphone), unusable due to recognition errors: ~the color of ~monuments~ is by no means a matter of choice~ ~it depends on many considerations~ but in the majority of the cases tends to protect the animals from danger by rendering it less conspicuous~ ~perhaps it may be ~saidthat~ if coloring is mainly protective~ ~and~ ~not~ to be but few brightly colored animals~ ~there are~ however~ not a few cases in which ~we~ ~would~ colors ~of~ themselves protective~ ~the kingfisher itself~ though so brightly colored~ is by no means easy to see~ ~the blue harmonizes with the water ~the~ bird~ as it darts along the stream~ and looks almost like a flash of sunlight~

Dragon 15.6 (with $220 high-end microphone setup - Sennheiser): The color of animals is by no means a matter of choice. It depends on many considerations~ but in the majority of the cases tends to protect the animals from danger by rendering it less conspicuous~ ~perhaps it may be ~saidthat~ if coloring is mainly protective~ there are to be but few brightly colored animals~ ~there are, however~ not a few cases in which we would colors are themselves protective~ ~the kingfisher itself, though~, so brightly colored~ is by no means easy to see~ ~the blue harmonizes with the water and the ~board~~ as it darts along the stream~ and looks almost like a flash of sunlight~