Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Creative GPLs X-Fi Sound Card Driver Code

Posted by timothy on from the intelligent-move dept.

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."

26 of 369 comments (clear)

  1. At last! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is great news! With proper sound card driver support maybe 2009 will finally be the year of the Linux desktop!

    1. Re:At last! by kae77 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Honestly, being a casual Linux user, sound card support is not the defining factor holding back Linux adoption. While Ubuntu goes a long way to improving the user experience with Linux, even to get it to a 'standard' setup, I needed to use the console no less than 5 times. That's *needed* to, there was no GUI way to do what I was trying to do. While I personally have no problem doing that, I shudder at the idea of talking someone like my father through it. The day that I can combine Linux stability with ease of use... that will be the year of the Linux desktop. Driver integration and support goes a long way to doing that, and a flushed out menu system will put it over the top.

    2. Re:At last! by UncleTogie · · Score: 4, Interesting

      While Ubuntu goes a long way to improving the user experience with Linux, even to get it to a 'standard' setup, I needed to use the console no less than 5 times.

      Which "standard" issues required the console, if I may be so bold to ask?

      --
      Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
    3. Re:At last! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The same kind that would require using REGEDIT on windows. Screw that troll, linux is as ready as any other consumer OS on the market. The consumer mass just been too much hammered into that win32 thinking shape.

    4. Re:At last! by Thaelon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Bingo.

      The year of the linux desktop will never come until "making everything work" for 80% of the population requires precisely zero command line interactions, and precisely zero edits of obscure text files. And that most google searches for help end with instructions telling the user how to fix their problem or get their whatever working must also use precisely zero command line interactions, and precisely zero edits of obscure text files.

      This includes hardware, common to obscure applications, common customizations etc.

      If you have to edit a text file, your software is not ready for (l)users.

      --

      Question everything

    5. Re:At last! by _Sprocket_ · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Honestly, being a casual Linux user, sound card support is not the defining factor holding back Linux adoption. While Ubuntu goes a long way to improving the user experience with Linux, even to get it to a 'standard' setup, I needed to use the console no less than 5 times. That's *needed* to, there was no GUI way to do what I was trying to do.

      While I personally have no problem doing that, I shudder at the idea of talking someone like my father through it. The day that I can combine Linux stability with ease of use... that will be the year of the Linux desktop. Driver integration and support goes a long way to doing that, and a flushed out menu system will put it over the top.

      I have come to disbelieve in the mystical power of the GUI. The GUI does not solve all problems. It can not provide radio buttons and check-marks for every situation. And it does not invoke a state of bliss for helping the wayward neophyte in a state of confusion. I accept that some will see this as heresy.

      Granted - I've long been a heretic. The command line is what ultimately turned me from Windows to Unix. But I understand that I am not a "normal user" and so I was willing to accept that GUIs are generally Good Ideas. And I still think they are; I used them in my Linux environment all the time for a lot of tasks. But there are times when it just doesn't work as well as a command line.

      This isn't a Linux concept. Various proprietary Unix environments have long straddled the fence between GUI and command line. And that includes today's most celebrated consumer Unix environment: MacOS X. Even Microsoft has given the command line increasing attention. And that's not even covering such dark arts as registry hacking.

      But wait! Most users never see a registry hack! Yet Linux must always resort to the command line. Right? Not in my experience.

      It's probably due to my particular interests - but I've always found a reason to dig in to the guts of a system. Either I'm doing something unique for my own use, cleaning up after having broken something, or cleaning up after someone else having broken something. And that's always required a registry editor or a command line (and sometimes a command line even when a GUI option was available as I just found it easier). And when I'm not doing something too out-of-the-ordinary, I've found the base Unbuntu install gives me a perfectly suitable environment. The clicky-clicky magic is baked right in. Here. Today.

      And when it doesn't? Its often a cruddy driver involved that trips up Ubuntu's autoconfig magic. That "driver integration" goes further than given credit for.

      That doesn't mean "Linux" can't use improvement. There's plenty of room for it. Cruddy drivers included.

    6. Re:At last! by Tawnos · · Score: 4, Informative

      Vista does, yes.

    7. Re:At last! by kae77 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Unfortunately, that's a very narrow argument. For power users -- yes. Having a command line is awesome. As I've said in other posts, I quite enjoy tinkering with linux and doing the research, it's fun for me. But for 98% of the population, they don't *want* to touch that. They want their OS to work. They want it to install smoothly, have the drivers, have easy to install programs (which even ubuntu struggles with), and work. They don't want to have to get into the guts of the OS. Since the discussion is about taking linux 'mainstream' -- that is what I'm talking about. Most people are monkeys who like pre-fab machines.

    8. Re:At last! by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I agree with you. What bothers me is that I've seen this conversation about 50,000,000 times on this site:

      A: Linux isn't very good at Foobar.
      B: Windows is just as bad at Foobar!1!!!

      Notice how person B totally and completely changed the subject while simultaneously missing the point. The point isn't how good Windows is at it; in fact, the original poster didn't even *mention* Windows 90% of the time this conversation happens. The point is that Linux isn't very good at Foobar and should be better at Foobar.

      Mac OS X users don't constantly compare themselves to Windows; I could go on "macosxhints.com" and post, "wow, the interface for Spotlight in Finder sucks ass" and I won't get 47 replies that all read, "yeah, well, Windows search is worse!!11!." For some reason, the Linux community does that constantly. It's annoying, it should stop.

      It's logically impossible to build an OS better than Windows if you only work on problems until you're "as good as Windows" at them. If the Linux cared about making a usable, supported, real alternative OS, they wouldn't do this constant penis-measuring about Windows and they'd start working on it.

      End rant, sorry.

      --
      Comment of the year
    9. Re:At last! by meringuoid · · Score: 4, Funny
      The experience has all the appeal of root canal without sedation.

      There's your problem you see. It should be user canal, and you sudo to get elevated privileges as and when needed.

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
    10. Re:At last! by X0563511 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How would someone afraid of the command line fix this kind of problem in Windows? If the user is the kind to be afraid of a command line, they are probably one of those users that need help when anything substantial goes wrong.

      I bet said user would end up asking for help from someone else.

      So, in light of that, how is it any different between Linux and Windows? Both have problems, and both can be a pain in the ass to fix.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    11. Re:At last! by wikinerd · · Score: 4, Funny

      If you have to edit a text file, your software is not ready for (l)users.

      Who wants lusers using the same OS as you? One of the reasons I use GNU/Linux (Debian) is precisely because the user communities are free of lusers, so that I know that whenever I post a message to a mailing list I will get answers from fellow power users.

      Lusers tend to infect a software project with their stupidity and naivety. They tend to click on any link they see in their emails, so virus writters target whatever OS the lusers use most. The developers of a piece of software also tend to make their software more suitable for stupid users because they tend to think that accomodating more users is a good thing, thus driving power users away. Unfortunately this currently happens with some GNU/Linux distros. You just have to see that many newer GNU/Linux software projects only work with X and have no command line support, and many websites don't work with text browsers anymore.

      Whatever software we use is not only determined by technical merit but also by social factors. We want to use software which is different from anyone else, particularly the lusers and the closed source world. If our OS requires interaction with a command line and editing obscure text files, then we can know for sure that we will never have to deal with a luser in our support mailing lists, etc.

      Thus, user-unfriendliness is a filter that we can use intentionally to keep non-powerusers away from our communities. If GNU/Linux ever becomes the preferred OS of lusers I am going to switch to OpenBSD, and if that too gets infected by lusers I will write my own.

    12. Re:At last! by hairyfeet · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes,what you said is true,but you miss a subtle but very important point. That is this: often the user doesn't HAVE to fix anything in Windows. Why? Because if there isn't a cousin,uncle,brother that "works on Windows" there is a guy down the street like me with a shop that'll be happy to take their money to just make it go. Folks get a Linux machine and it is just them,Google,and a big scary CLI. And they don't like that. So they run back to Windows.

      Let me give an example: I got a neighbor down the hall that is a graphic designer and engineer. Damned smart,used to work at NASA in Houston on the shuttle mockups. But he comes and pays me to come over any time he has the slighest networking problem. I told him I would be happy to show him the basics so he wouldn't HAVE to call me when he had a problem. His answer? He looked at me like I was crazy and said "Why in the WORLD would I want to do that? I'm busy doing the stuff I enjoy,like helping the rocket club design and build new instruments and doing graphic art for clients. I HATE messing with all those Windows nuts and bolts. I'd much rather just pay you,who actually like to mess with that junk,than to take time out of my busy life to deal with something I hate. Life's too short for that."

      Which is why ANY CLI at all is too much. The second someone like him(which I have found is the vast majority of my clients. The really DON'T want to know, just pay me and make it go away) ran into a problem that required CLI,and he couldn't find someone to do it,the Linux machine would be returned or sat out on the curb. Hell,I've found the vast majority of Windows users don't even know what CLI or regedit are. They call someone or drop it off somewhere and then the box just works again. And that is how they like it. So while the uber geeks may like CLI,as far as Windows goes I've found that even the power users don't like delving too deep into the guts. They'd just rather pay me and make it go away. And that of course is how I like it!

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  2. Finally by NuclearError · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I eagerly await any driver that is smaller and faster and takes up less resources than Creative's.

    --
    Nuclear engineers build weapons. Civil engineers build targets.
  3. Fucking awesome by IceCreamGuy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Maybe I'm a tool for having one of these cards (Ok, probably I'm a tool), but the giant amount of bullshit I have to go through to get it working in Ubuntu is really the only remaining things keeping me from booting into it more than a couple times a week. With the free Codeweavers SW and this in the pipeline, I can't imagine a need to boot into Windows too often anymore.

  4. Why is this even closed source in the first place? by badboy_tw2002 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously, what possible financial/business gain is there to have creative hide these things? Are they really worried about other companies stealing their driver ideas for their hardware? I know graphics drivers can potentially (or used to anyways) have a large amount of optimized code that could _maybe_ be beneficial to competitors, but sound cards?

  5. Re:Win? by pushing-robot · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The summary is misleading. TFA says that the source is available on their web site.

    FWIW, you can't use the GPL if you don't make the source available.

    --
    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
  6. Sweet! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now I can play all those great games that got built on top of the open-source ID engines!

  7. Soundcards? by JustNiz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Perhaps this is a sign that Creative are fearing for their existence. I mean, with high quality onboard audio (7.1, dolby etc) now pretty much standard on even budget motherboards, aren't the days of buying a separate soundcard history now?

    Other than musicians perhaps, I can't think that anyone, even gamers/power users would still consider a separate soundcard as a 'required' upgrade, or even necessary at all.

    1. Re:Soundcards? by MostAwesomeDude · · Score: 5, Informative

      Musicians (like me) will buy better-quality hardware than Creative. :3

      --
      ~ C.
    2. Re:Soundcards? by rsmith-mac · · Score: 4, Informative

      Headphones.

      No one else gives a damn about headphones. The quality issues with on-board sound become quite apparent with a good set of headphones, and even most other consumer sound cards treat it as an afterthought, doing whatever they would do with a set of stereo speakers. The X-Fi (at least under Windows) has an absolutely excellent headphone spatialization algorithm for general listening, it completely resolves the fatigue issue that results from hearing only a single audio channel in each ear without naturally occurring crossfeed. As for gaming, Creative (or rather Aureal's) head related transfer function tech for 3D audio is second to none; it's better than 5.1 speakers and is the only thing on the market right now worth a damn for 3D audio on headphones.

      Unfortunately I'm not sure how much of this would be usable under Linux. The spatialization issue in particular drives me nuts.

  8. Re:Why is this even closed source in the first pla by Kamokazi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just a shot in the dark, but maybe they had 3rd party stuff in the drivers and they couldnt legally GPL it...Dolby Digital, etc...and then they removed it now so they can? Just a guess.

    --
    As our way of thanking you for your positive contributions to Slashdot, you are eligible to disable Slashdot 2.0.
  9. GPL... by chrysalis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    GPL. So BSD coders will have to rewrite it from scratch.

    This is better than nothing, but worse than good documentation and worse than a BSD driver (that could be merged to BSD and GPL licensed operating systems).

    --
    {{.sig}}
  10. Sound cards are irrelevant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not even gamers buy sound cards anymore. I bet Creative's sound card business is small fries compared to their consumer electronics business.

    1. Re:Sound cards are irrelevant by vux984 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not even gamers buy sound cards anymore.

      It does make you wonder what the 30% "other" is though.

      They've got Creative Labs represented at about 3.5% between Audigy 2 ZS, Audigy, and X-Fi. But is that accurately counting all the X-Fi variants? What about the multitude of Audigy 2's that aren't "ZS". Ditto for the diverse original Audigy line. The venerable SoundBlaster "Live" series that preceded the Audigy isn't represented at all. I wouldn't really be raising the question, except that we've got that giant 30% "other" sitting there. I could easily see another 5 or 6 or more percent being various creative labs cards.

      In any case, I agree with you that that even gamers aren't buying sound cards the way they used to.

      That said, some of those steam numbers look WAY out of whack.

      Take a look at 16:9 (widescreen) aspect ratio monitors, which they claim make up 26% of all monitors. And within widescreen 34% claim 24" or larger (24" @ 15%+ over 24" @ 19%).

      That equates to 9% of all users using a 24"+ screen. Yet if you compare that to the primary display resolution table, a mere 2.29% are running 1920x1200 or larger. 1920x1200 is the native resolution on 24"-26" screens, with 30" being 2560x1600 (and not represented at all in the chart).

      I call bullshit.

  11. Obligatory bash reference by AcidPenguin9873 · · Score: 4, Funny

    http://bash.org/?24262