Sound card : Sound Blaster X-Fi ?

[Vincent Trouilliez]

On Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:10:52 +0000 (UTC)
"Scott (angrykeyboarder)" <geekboy at angrykeyboarder.com> wrote:


Hi Scott, 

That thread is very old, now obsolete since the work mate I was trying
to help with his X-Fi, now re-installed Windows XP... well at least he
tried Ubuntu and seemed quite enthousiastic about how nice the GUI was
compared to Windows. So it wasn't a totally negative experience ;-)

> Vincent Trouilliez spake thusly:
> > So I am seeking feedback from you boys (and girls): anybody has
> > experience on Ubuntu with an X-Fi ? Is the proprietary driver really a
> > joke ?
> 
> I didn't know there was one.

It's not hidden.. just go to www.CreativE.com, the Linux driver for the
X-Fi is available in theit driver download section, with all the other
drivers. It was released just 6 months ago as a beta.. and apparently
there have been no development (RC, nevermind a stable release) since !

> Per http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Vendor-Creative_Labs
> 
> "Creative actively preventing support due to no datasheets being released 
> to ALSA developers. Reverse engineering work not started due to lack of 
> time."

Yes, that's also what I read in creative's own Linux forums: "Creative
doesn't give a s**t of Linux and won't make the slightest effort!".


> I guess thee aren't any ALSA devs out there buying new PCs. I've not seen 
> a new PC with a SoundBlaster card that *wasn't* an X-Fi in quite some 
> time (well over a year). The X-Fi series replaced the Audigy series.
> 
> This truly sucks.
> 
> If I were buying a PC today, I'd get it without a sound card and buy a 
> Audigy card on my own and install it (The Audigy cards are still for sale 
> - they just aren't found in new PCs).

Ah, interesting, give up X-Fi and prefere Audigy... I will try to
remember this, should I need to buy a sound card for myself.

Thanks for the comments Andy, very late, but useful nonetheless ! ;-)

Regards,

--
Vince