Creative to release the X-Fi source code

[Strider]

http://tech.shantanugoel.com/2008/11/07/creative-open-sources-x-fi-sound-card-driverfinally.html

Creative has finally come to its senses and turned to the open source community to raise its X-Fi series of sound cards from the ashes on the linux platform, which got burnt mostly due to the poor quality of the drivers that Creative was giving out. The announcement for releasing the source code, licensed under GPL v2, was made on their forums. For the announcement and download details, click here.

I guess this is a reason for us to rejoice because of two reasons:

1. This would definitely make life that much more better as the open source developers fix these particular drivers (ALSA people, start your engines)

2. This also means another big inroads into the commercial world for open source as creative is definitely one of the big boys around.

Now, I wish NVidia would see the light of the day as well. Creative guys, care to take a trip down to Santa Clara to share your reasonings with our GPU brothers

Good news for those who (like me) bought an X-Fi card and later switched to linux.

 

[GoodGame]

That's cool, but those are expensive cards.

 

[Speedo]

That's cool, but those are expensive cards.

You can get them for as little as ~$50. They're awesome cards, some of the best sound quality I've ever heard on a PC - Creative has just always had crappy drivers for them on all platforms