I am extremely bothered by this thread and the actions of Creative. I have been one of the people who has used Creative sound cards since the early to mid 1990's. With the release of the Audigy series Creative's drivers have been problematic at best. To hear of the recent Vista issues is just further troubling. What is Creative thinking? I'm at a loss to even begin to see how far they have placed their collective heads up one of their orifices. I sincerely hope this "situation" reaches a class action status.

Regardless of whether Daniel_K's work infringed upon Creative's IP the simple fact was that he, alone, was helping keep Creative going. Since Creative couldn't release decent drivers someone else was. I can understand Creative being upset about modified drivers but when those drivers function better than anything Creative can release then I don't see it as just about IP. Creative is knowingly and intentionally short-changing their consumers.

I will never buy another Creative product again. I cannot and will not support a company that cannot release decent drivers and then goes to the point of threatening a third-party who does. I hope everyone boycotts Creative.

I'm sure it looked great on paper when Creative decided to take a stand but I don't think they really looked at the big picture. Welcome to the real world.

Trying to forcefully obsolete your hardware under the guise that 'Vista is different and it doesn't work' is evil and stupid.

Forcing someone who proves how stupid and evil you are by showing that the hardware will work in Vista is laughable and pathetic.

I have used bugmenot - creativebmn/1bugMEnot1 - I will never be buying anything from Creative, I was even looking at another mp3 player, speakers, webcams.

People can look to Labtec and other companies to get their peripherals. I hope the experienced users can share their thoughts of other higher end sound cards.

Hello Dale-CL,

I am posting here today after reading your original post in this thread to let you, as well as the rest of Creative Labs, know that I will never be purchasing one of your sound cards again. Growing up with the Creative Labs Sound Blaster cards, you have always been the first sound card provider I have turned to in order to fulfill my needs. You will no longer be on my list.

I believe strongly in the support of products post market, particularly when it comes to the computer and electronics industry. Your decision to provide inadequate support to your loyal customers greatly concerns me, and your response to outside support, whether it is paid through donations or not, is extremely troubling.

Thank you for the years of satisfaction you have provided for myself and my family. You have taken part in many fond memories I am sure we will never forget. It's sad to see our relationship end on such terms, I wish you had made a more reasonable decision or taken action for yourselves on this matter.

Hi,

What's your opinion on what soundcard to use, as it is not going to be from Creative? What is the best alternative, and which company repects its customers, and is known for producing good drivers for both Windows and Linux?

JRohde

+1 ban creative, period.

i will NEVER buy anything from creative ever again in my life, that is a promise i will keep to creative, as long as i live, i will ensure none of my families, friends, and/or any one i know that would want to purchase anything from creative, *note: ANYTHING, as long as it is brand creative lab, it is BANNED.

X-fi will be the last crap i get from creative period, because of your action Dale, i know you are just a spokeman, however, that is exactly your point, you represented creative, meaning that is exactly what creative is intended.

it is not about the right or wrong, its about the job, you can't do your job right, then we shall move on

in this time of century, like Obama said, "Change", that is what are we looking for. it is about **bleep** time we need some change, thank for bringing this up Dale. +1 to Dale.

here are my suggestion to Creative Lab.

to all staff that made X-fi and vista related drivers.

1) fire your entire development team. from software to marketing, or just shut down your "Lab"

(since your "Lab" is not making innovation to the world. wasted planet earth's resources, again you are stealing my clean air, i reserve every right to use legal action toward to your "creative lab", your box saids vista capable, it is not true, while it works better on XP, while buggy on Vista, capable of bug? we can garther and file million dollars law suit, just wait and see.)

2) fire and remove yourself from the office dale

(hey, you're a good guy dale, it's time, to find a better job.)

(i do not want to see your mentally challenge request to any one on this planet, i will donate to daniel_k, and what are you going to do exactly? if i am donating to any one. he can host his own server in countries that do not give a sh!t about your right, nothing is right for you, you are stealing the air i am breathing right now, i work so hard to squeeze my lung to breath the air around me, and the creative's staffs are stealing the right from me to breath the air which i have all the right to breath.)

P.S. I am sure thepiratebay, mininova, torrentreactor and so on, will have the related software found in a very short amount of time, not that i care, Asus will eventually take over your soundcard business, and Dale, you'd better find a new job before your sorry xxx get fired due to poor sale from your great company. you're definitely an extra fat that creative fab don't need when they are on diet.

oops typo, "lab"

ban me from the forum too, ban 1 of me, there 1,xxx,xxx,xxx more of me out there, unless you ban your products, then we can't complain. i am lucky i bought the cheapest x-fi card, and none other of your company's products interests me.

2nd P.S. i am working with my lawyer to gather infos on going after YOUR company's vista capable products, when it is ready, i am sure million will join my law suit, and your company is going down like MS went down to their vista capable products. don't lie to your customers, our dollars worth every penny.

oh yea, it is getting very very personal, creative lab. watch what you say next time dale, think and re-think, and tri-think before releasing a pub note that don't really prove your company is so powerful to claim what is right or not, but pisses every customers.

Perhaps our stock would rise if you didn't cripple certain products and provided the full functionality of the product to all users, all operating systems... isn't that what us customers purchase when they buy creative labs over another vendor? As for the driver modder and your protection of your IP, have you considered giving the guy a job developing a "customized" line for gamers and others who want high performance. I personally no longer insist on your products when specifying corporate computer builds. And, in my case it is a simple price vs. functionality decision. The only business decision that I can even contemplate that would require crippleware is if a manufacturer or major software house would be embarrassed to find that they could not meet your performance demands -- and their product did not look good in the bullet charts. I was unaware of the fact that you deliberately support crippleware and now I am. Thanks for the heads up.

Instead of banning this hard work they should have offered daniel_k a job. That would have been appropriate.

My first Soundcard ever bought was a Soundblaster for my 486/33MHz. My last Soundcard bought from Cretin Labs is an Audigy 2 ZS.

Oh and by the way, you will see my ZEN Stone at eBay next week.

CU

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MakeTnotWar wrote:

Instead of banning this hard work they should have offered daniel_k a job. That would have been appropriate.

My first Soundcard ever bought was a Soundblaster for my 486/33MHz. My last Soundcard bought from Cretin Labs is an Audigy 2 ZS.

Oh and by the way, you will see my ZEN Stone at eBay next week.

CU

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I also had to register just to reply to this. I am disgusted with the way creative has handled this. I currently operate a custom computer repair shop where we also sell parts and build custom computers. We exclusively have built using creative sound cards over the past few years and after seeing this will stop completely. I am sending any products I can back and will be throwing away my sons creative MP3 player, which was bought for him for Christmas and will be buying him one from a more trustworthy company.

As a note to creative if they even care enough to monitor this thread. I have seen and personally posted on other forums such as Tomshardware and Anandtech. Word is spreading about how far you have seperated yourself from your fanbase. You forget where you came from and who got you to the place that you are today. Shame on you and all of your affiliates.

Best,

3Ball