I'm telling you, instead of us saying, "Go get an iPhone or something else", we better be saying, "We'll have to wait on a community solution for ASR, but it will be addressed in Maemo 6", or the blogs and media will roast the N900 and use it as ammo. No need for bad press.
I'm ready to roast it myself on this small caveat, but only because of the cold reception some of the developers here give new guys. They don't teach manners at Comp Sci programs, I guess.
I have yet to hear anyone say,"Let's get a conformation from Nokia that ASR is or isn't coming, or a plan to implement it ourselves" which is the reputation this group has had, undeservedly so, I now see.
Maemo is OURS, and suitable for most of what we want if we decide to implement it. If it takes a year, cool. But if Maemo 5 will never support ASR, let me know so I can ignore this space until Maemo 6. I'm done trying to convince this forum that some may need it. They don't, and that's all that matters to these devs.