It’s a sad state of affairs when computer products are sold and do not deliver the functions they promise in the advertising spiel and hype. But this is exactly what Creative Labs is trying to do with it’s soundcard line-up.
Since the release of Vista over a year ago, Creative have been fumbling (intentionally crippling -Ed) their driver releases with features and product support being cut (most recently the ability to decode Dolby Digital and DTS signals).
Along with the lacking features, Creative also believe that everyone should upgrade to the latest and greatest products, just for Vista compatibility, despite the fact that the older cards can be *made* to work with a few changes to the drivers.
Most recently (yesterday) Creative have made possibly their biggest blunder to date….
On the Creative Labs Forums, there has been a shining light in the darkness and gloom that is the Creative business model. That light came in the form of a talented driver modder with the username daniel_k.
Yesterday, Creative posted a cease and decist notice on their forum:
http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=soundblaster&thread.id=116332
This one announcement has outraged thousands of Creative customers and has prompted multiple threads and news postings on the front pages of many internet sites.
Please feel free to post your feelings and/or comments on the forums.