Creative GPLs X-Fi Sound Card Driver Code

An anonymous reader writes "In a move that's a win for the free software community, Creative Labs has decided to release their binary Linux driver for the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi and X-Fi Titanium sound cards under the GPL license. This is coming after several failed attempts at delivering a working binary driver and years after these sound cards first hit the market."

Comments

Re:Why is this even closed source in the first pla

[bersl2]

Releasing driver source code reveals most of the same information that is included in detailed technical specifications. It almost always includes enough info to make a compatible, competing product, and often has enough info to greatly simplify the process of reverse-engineering the device.

A hardware company like Creative should be wary of doing this - it could really hurt their monopoly on gaming-oriented sound cards.

Thanks for the assertion, but I don't think so. Why should I or anyone else believe you?

Re:At last!

[PitaBred]

So antivirus software, even Microsoft Office itself, is not even close to ready for (l)users by your metric. Hell, fixing the registry should apparently be part of normal system maintenance.

Hell, an obscure text file is easier to walk someone through editing than the registry is, and a LOT lower chance of completely hosing the entire system while you're at it.

You seem to not realize that you're comfortable with Windows and the dumbness that goes into administrating it (do you even think twice about downloading and installing drivers on a brand new PC, and uninstalling shitware?). When it's different, you all of a sudden think that this makes the new software somehow "unsuitable" for the general user. That is patently false... the people who have the hardest time switching to Linux are those who consider themselves "power users" of Windows.