IT Manager here, just arrived via Digg (congratz on making the front page!). What a pain the arse registration is, password requirements??? Are you freaking kidding me>????

Won't be putting any more Creative cards in our PC's.... And I was just about to build the new Media guy at my work a PC.

Ex customer Boog

yah real smooth move phil

do this on a friday so THE INTERNET HAET MASHEEN is in full effect by monday.

containment?

I THINK ITS TIME TO AN HERO PHIL.

FINAL SOLUTION TIME. DELETE EVERYTHING.

Read this on on /.

I won't be buying and Creative products again and I'll be advising friends not to either.

Ah well I have been looking at cards to help out my surround sound system, and I guess I'll cross out the Creative ones.

I agree with those who say that Creative had the right to do this, but do I really want to buy products from a company who doesn't even want their products supported properly. Next time I build a computer for a friend I won't be buying Creative, I already have enough trouble managing drivers for them.

Thanks to whomever set up the BugMeNot login

This has to be one of the most disturbing yet entertaining forum threads I have ever read. I am shocked and amazed that it hasn't been closed down or deleted by the moderator under instructions from management. However, I would think that removal of this thread would be even more damaging to the now throughly destroyed reputation of Creative Labs and closure of it would only spawn hundreds of separate but related threads.

The Board of Directors of Creative Tech Ord is bound to face disenchanted shareholders come Monday morning. Heads will likely roll here, and I am actually going to enjoy watching to see how this soap opera turns out.

Brilliant, Phil. Simply brilliant. Helluva way to bring Creative Labs into a flame war with the entire f u c k i n g Internet.

Ouch! Looks like I too will not buy any more products sold by Creative! And neither will my company!

Congrats you just bought yourself out of the market!

Since my first soundblaster in 1991 I have leaned towards Creative Labs products. Whenever building or specing systems, Creative Labs was on my short list (exception: servers, business machines w/o a/v requirements). As the "computer guy" in the family, I can't begin to estimate the number of CL cards, web cams, and other products I've purchased or recommended over the years. That ends now.

I've also been looking at devices like the Creative Zen Vision W for a trip I am taking next month. This incredibly short-sighted move has now taken CL out of consideration. Add me to the growing list of people that will not be buying any additional CL products. I don't know if I will reconsider if you reverse course. The damage has been done, you've proven to not be trust worthy.

I don't use Vista. I barely use XP. Most of my systems are Linux or Unix, including the system I am using to write this message. I have no vested interest in the drivers provided by Daniel_K. For me, it is the principal. You had a volunteer doing what you couldn't or wouldn't. He was probably a CL fan, too. And this is how you repay his generosity of time and effort to make your products work better for your customers. Tsk tsk.

Saw this on reddit. Made a forum account just to let you guys know that I won't be purchasing any more Creative products in the near future.

later

As a prosumer,

I bought 2 top of the line X-FI cards for my Vista desktops (as they were advertised as fully supported)

Soon found out they weren't and that quite a few features my old cards had under XP were now dead.

I needed Dolby Digital decoding for optical inputs - so I bought the "Live Drive" thing for X-FI as the support postings on the Creative site said this would make the greyed out decoding option in my XFI work. Yet again, it didn't. Only by the work of an individual was I finally able to get that functionlity by patching my drivers.

You have the right to enforce your IP - I as a customer have a right to a product that functions as advertised, especially after you "screwed me twice" to be blunt.

As the saying goes, you won't be screwing me a 3rd time. I've owned Creative sound cards since the SB 16 came out. I'll be exercising my right to purchase a product that works from a company that supports and values it's users. Creative is clearly not that company any longer.

(btw, I also happen to own a MS Partnered OEM PC Build Shop - I'm no longer going to carry your products in that capacity either)