Bill,
I use Dragon Naturally Speaking. I think it's version 2000. It's works fairly well, better than MS I think. It still needs quite a bit of training. Newer versions might even be better. I don't remember anything being confusing or difficult with the installation.
I still haven't invested in Cepstral or AT&T Natural voices yet. I keep hoping that AT&T Natural voices will come down in price.
Art,
Babel voices may not support SAPI5 and may not lip sync properly. I remember reading something about this before, but I can't remember the exact issue.
=vonsmith=