Bluffs and Tall Stories in the Open Source ecosystem

Just wait until x.x is released, then we would be able to use so and so features.
We are working on so and so feature which will make things simpler.
Within this time frame these features would be integrated in our product.

How many times have I heard these sort of "promises", "commitments", "assurances" and then when the time comes there is not a single word mentioning these. Even the news outlets which cover open source seem to forget these "claims".

I will highlight some of these tall stories:

First I would like to mention is 'Theme' support in Calligra Office Suite. This is not a "claim" as such, may be just a random thought that a person put up. Anyways, the author, Jarosław Staniek, had put up an article which mentioned that this 'Theme' support could be added in one of the open source Office Suite. The article is at: 'Fruits of CSS2: Shared Themes' https://blogs.kde.org/2011/12/14/fruits-css2-shared-themes

This article is dated 14 December 2011. and talks about Shared Themes, which is somewhat like the theme support in MS Office 2007 onwards and even mentions that this sort of theme support is present even in Apple iWork 2005.

So, if we consider the 2005 time line, open source Office Suites do not have this feature for the last 11 years. And, there is no vision to bring this feature either. Hmm, so we are more than a decade behind the proprietary Office Suites. And, with no vision for the future we would even be two decades behind and then go into the forgettable history.

Second: On 24 January 2012, on Mark Shuttleworth's blog, there is an article which highlights that speech will be one of the most exciting way to interact with your computer. And, he says "I have a feeling this will be a lot of fun in the next two years :)" - that means in January 2014. Well, its September 2016 now and no word on the status of speech integration in Ubuntu. You can view the article at: http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/939
Also, there is an article on the CMU Sphinx website highlighting that their technology will be used. You can view this at: http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.net/2013/06/pocketsphinx-will-be-used-in-ubuntu-unity-8/

There will definitely be more tall stories if you dig more. But, I found these two to be the most needed features required now to make a difference. If these two features is added in the next couple of years then the open source ecosystem would definitely be at par with the proprietary systems.

But, as it is now, these are mere statements with nothing substantial going on, no updates, not even a question being asked.