{"slug": "dragon-naturallyspeaking", "name": "Dragon NaturallySpeaking", "category": "ai", "category_name": "AI models and assistants", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 4, "warners": 0, "score": 2.796, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2026-03-02", "latest": "2026-05-19", "why": "what really saved me was dictation via Dragon NaturallySpeaking", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 0, "compare": 1, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "what really saved me was dictation via Dragon NaturallySpeaking", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Dragon NaturallySpeaking", "Dragon"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 771046720, "item_id": 48190420, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48190420", "by": "59nadir", "date": "2026-05-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "what really saved me was dictation via Dragon NaturallySpeaking", "excerpt": "I lost about 50% functionality in my hands in 2018-2019 and couldn't type more than an hour or so per day, what really saved me was dictation via Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and for coding I used dragonfly to create programming grammars. I'm happy for this guy for finding a solution but LLMs (in this shape) were late to the party.", "context": "hand injury since 2018-2019, limited typing", "use_case": "dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Codex-Maxxing"}, {"id": 758565680, "item_id": 47410355, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47410355", "by": "pedro_caetano", "date": "2026-03-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I just use Dragon NaturallySpeaking, mainly to give myself an RSI break from typing.", "excerpt": "Not voice assistants but for anything that falls into the body of text category (emails, letters, documentaton) I just use Dragon NaturallySpeaking, mainly to give myself an RSI break from typing. A Radiologist friend of mine convinced me to give it a try, apparently radiology reports are dictated in most places nowadays I think the main frustration is often speed and precision but with modern dictation software it i", "context": "", "use_case": "Dictation / speech-to-text", "switched_from": "", "story": "My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant"}, {"id": 755580770, "item_id": 47223798, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47223798", "by": "mrguyorama", "date": "2026-03-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Dragon speech to text tools were gold standard", "excerpt": "A decade ago this didn't require LLMs and cutting edge hardware and a trillion dollars of GPUs. This was a Facebook feature in like 2012. >What I really want is my phone to transcribe all of my phone calls to a Notes document This has been doable for decades. Why haven't you done it? My Pixel phones did this with voicemail before LLMs. Windows Vista shipped with full featured dictation functionality, and it works bet", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple AI servers unused in warehouses due to low Apple Intelligence usage"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "59nadir", "context": "hand injury since 2018-2019, limited typing", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48190420", "date": "2026-05-19"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["dictation", "dictation / speech-to-text"], "compared": [], "makers": [{"id": 793802832, "item_id": 49612677, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49612677", "by": "tigerlang", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I am currently actively developing the \u201cDragon\u201d microkernel.", "excerpt": "Hello, I am currently actively developing the \u201cDragon\u201d microkernel. However, what sets it apart from Linux and other kernels is, of course, its microkernel architecture, and secondly, the fact that it is written and verified using SPARK Ada (gnatprove). But that doesn\u2019t mean kernel services have to be written only in SPARK Ada; I added the C SDK so that anyone can write a service. The only downside is that this servi", "context": "developer of Dragon", "use_case": "verified microkernel", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Dragon Microkernel in Spark Ada"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49612676", "title": "Show HN: Dragon Microkernel in Spark Ada", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48189156", "title": "Codex-Maxxing", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47398534", "title": "My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47324087", "title": "Debian decides not to decide on AI-generated contributions", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47221264", "title": "Apple AI servers unused in warehouses due to low Apple Intelligence usage", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 2, "compare": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 771046720, "item_id": 48190420, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48190420", "by": "59nadir", "date": "2026-05-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "what really saved me was dictation via Dragon NaturallySpeaking", "excerpt": "I lost about 50% functionality in my hands in 2018-2019 and couldn't type more than an hour or so per day, what really saved me was dictation via Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and for coding I used dragonfly to create programming grammars. I'm happy for this guy for finding a solution but LLMs (in this shape) were late to the party.", "context": "hand injury since 2018-2019, limited typing", "use_case": "dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Codex-Maxxing"}, {"id": 758565680, "item_id": 47410355, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47410355", "by": "pedro_caetano", "date": "2026-03-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I just use Dragon NaturallySpeaking, mainly to give myself an RSI break from typing.", "excerpt": "Not voice assistants but for anything that falls into the body of text category (emails, letters, documentaton) I just use Dragon NaturallySpeaking, mainly to give myself an RSI break from typing. A Radiologist friend of mine convinced me to give it a try, apparently radiology reports are dictated in most places nowadays I think the main frustration is often speed and precision but with modern dictation software it i", "context": "", "use_case": "Dictation / speech-to-text", "switched_from": "", "story": "My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant"}, {"id": 757221617, "item_id": 47326351, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47326351", "by": "BeetleB", "date": "2026-03-10", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Way better than stuff like Dragon.", "excerpt": "Similar story, albeit not so extreme. I have similar ergonomic issues that crop up from time to time. My programming is not so impacted (spend more time thinking than typing, etc), but things like email, documentation, etc can be brutal (a lot more computer usage vs programming). My simple solution: I use Whisper to transcribe my text, and feed the output to an LLM for cleanup (custom prompt). It's fantastic. Way bet", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Debian decides not to decide on AI-generated contributions"}, {"id": 755580770, "item_id": 47223798, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47223798", "by": "mrguyorama", "date": "2026-03-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Dragon speech to text tools were gold standard", "excerpt": "A decade ago this didn't require LLMs and cutting edge hardware and a trillion dollars of GPUs. This was a Facebook feature in like 2012. >What I really want is my phone to transcribe all of my phone calls to a Notes document This has been doable for decades. Why haven't you done it? My Pixel phones did this with voicemail before LLMs. Windows Vista shipped with full featured dictation functionality, and it works bet", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple AI servers unused in warehouses due to low Apple Intelligence usage"}]}