Microsoft Broadens Recognizers In Windows 7 to 26, Now Tied to Language Packs

In Windows 7, Microsoft has broadend their recognizers from 12 languages in Vista  to 26 languages, which include the following: Norweigian (bokmal & nynorsk), Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Polish, Porgeues (Portugal), Romanian, Serbian (Cryillic & Latin), Catalan, Russian, Czech, and Croatian. Non-English Windows 7 will get their language recognizer, plus  English.

The  recognizers  are  currently a standard part of Vista Home Premium, Vista Business, and Vista Ultimate. In Windows 7,  however, additional recognizers will only be available via the Language Pack, which is only available in Windows 7 Ultimate and Enterprise.   The main  reason for  this move was to reclaim  diskspace that the recognizers took.

This will be particularly troublesome for those cultures where multiple languages are the norm (Australia, France, etc), and the education space.  Tablet PC users  now wanting to do recognition beyond  English  or their  own language + English will now  have to purchase Windows 7 Ultimate, which is quite  a high cost to pay  to just get additional recognition support. Now, the parent buying a tablet pc for their student will now need to factor in an upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate rather than just staying at Windows 7 Home Premium.

Rather than tying recognizers to the Language Pack, I would suggest creating a Recognizer Pack download and making that a  free   Windows Update download for Windows 7 Premium owners.

I’m curious as to how many GottaBeMobile.com readers this will impact?