"One had to wonder, what was Creative thinking, that perhaps only Linux users running 64-bit software on massive web and database servers and HPC workstations loaded up with more than 4GB of RAM would have Soundblaster X-Fi cards?"

How wrong are you? I've been using 64-bit Linuxes for years now. I have 5+ years old AMD 64 and I prefer using 64-bit systems on it, simply because it's faster.

Sorry this if off topic a bit but it is in the spirit of the article - sort of: Now if they'd do this with some of their MP3 players, I'd be a happy guy finally - and so would 50 pages worth of fellow Zen users.(http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=dap&thread.id=199672&view=by_date_ascending&page=1 )

How hard can it be to integrate their SD card expansion slot into the main memory of the unit without all hell breaking lose? If they open sourced this kind of thing too, they'd find themselves selling boatloads of MP3 players once more...and probably out of the verge of going bust? Who buys Creative anymore anyhow? Uh, definitely not me from here on out...shafted once, never to be again...

You've been warned!

The XFi Linux driver released the other day wasn't just old code finally revealed to the public. They can be quickly integrated into the latest distros and a far better than what has been seen before from Creative. So far, they actually work.

...Just opened the driver code to begin with, they wouldn't have needed to go through 3 years of pain and binary nonsense! (They would've made more sales in hardware!)

Here's a lesson for ALL hardware makers. If you want Linux support, here are 4 options:

(1) Release the source code of the driver yourself. (eg: Creative, Ralink, etc)

OR

(2) Ask the community for help with driver development. Talk to experienced Linux driver devs and get them the specs under NDA. (This way, you are protected from any potential patent problems, while the driver code is still open source).

Go here: 
=> http://www.kroah.com/log/linux/linux_driver_project_kickoff.html
=> http://www.linuxdriverproject.org/twiki/bin/view

OR

(3) Open the specs and let us write the driver...The traditional way. (This is what AMD did with Radeon specs...But it will require a lawyer/coder or two to sweep through potent legal concerns if your hardware has third-party things in it).


OR

(4) Open the driver code, as well as assign a small number of employees to a open driver project. Invite the community to help and contribute. (This is what Intel has done with their IGP support in Linux).

To be honest, we would love to support as much hardware as possible. All you hardware folks need to do is ask, and we'll be more than willing to support you.

Result? => Your hardware is supported in Linux. You get hardware sales from Linux users, and it costs you nothing for Linux driver development (If you adopt (1), (2), or (3)). We get an open driver and we handle the software bugs/fixes. End-users happy, as they get an "out of the box" support for their hardware.

A Win-Win with community cooperation.

Now if only they'd open source their Windows drivers so that the damned things don't BSOD all the time...

Finally they release the drivers, probably after a "asking for it" thread of more than 1 thousand post.

They just need to release the Windows Vista drivers now!!!!

Finally companies starting to see sense but for a massive player on the market you would expect them to have a large team of driver writers like nvidia and amd has.

oh yeah and dont flame windows 7 before you have even tried the pre beta because even for a pre beta it actually runs a lot faster and more stable then even vista in its current incarnation :)

windows 7 6.1.6801 might i add just look on your local friendly torrent site :)

Maybe now somebody can port the X-Fi Drivers to OSX with proper CoreAudio support.

Its about time we had a decent internal audio card for our Tower Macs (G4/5/Intel)