Creative lacks Linux support too

I read this article with interest and thought I'd like to add another villain you may want to write an article about.

Yesterday I bought a new Creative X-Fi Fatality sound card. I just expected it to work with linux (albeit with only modern kernels). What a mistake. It's not supported and looking around the web, it will be a long time since Creative are apparently not willing to help out with any specs for the ALSA guys.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not unreasonable. I'm not expecting EAX or any of the fancy stuff, I just want to play an mp3 and have a "bing" when new mail arrives. I don't think this is too much to ask, especially when I've just shelled out 150quid for this card.

I do understand that the new DSP technology is probably covered in secrets, but do you need to know all about that area of the card when you just want basic support? If their are loads of trade secrets, how about "doing an nvidia" and at least giving us binary drivers?

Anyway, thought it might make another interesting story, especially if you can get hold of Creative for a statement and try and help all us linux users who are suffering in silence (pun intended!).

Regards,
Andrew

I read the article, and was compelled to point out that i bought a pretty darn expensive sound-card: Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Fatal1ty, and was enraged when i noticed when installing Linux that it isn't supported by ALSA because Creative seems to be holding back info about the chipset. Joy.

See here.

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