Creative is in the fire now after having asked driver modder daniel_k to stop his work with Creative audio drivers. The announcement infuriated users at the Creative forums and even made hundreds of new users register just to make their voices heard and utter their dislike with Creative’s move. The story spread fast and today the thread has reached more than 240 pages, and even spawned a petition, while some even looked into the possibility of a class action suit. People were outraged, the least to say.
Creative has now made an official statement regarding this;
“We have read the strong feedback about Creative’s forum post regarding driver development by Daniel_k and other outside parties. Creative’s message posted on our behalf by our Company spokesperson tried to address our concern about the improper distribution of certain software which is the property of other companies. However, we did not make it as clear as we would have liked that we do support driver development by independent third parties. The huge task of developing driver updates to accommodate the many changes in the Vista operating system and the extensive testing required, including the lengthy Vista certification requirements for audio, makes it very difficult for Creative to develop updates for all past products. Outside developers have been very helpful to Creative and our customers by developing updates for many of our Sound Blaster products, and we do support and appreciate these efforts. This however does not extend to the unauthorized distribution of other companies’ property. We hope to work out a mutually agreeable method for working with Daniel_k in supporting his efforts in driver development. Going forward, we are committed to doing a better job of working more closely with third parties to support their development for our products and our customers.”
Basically, they’re saying that they are indeed interested in working with and supporting third-party driver developers, and that they are also interested in supporting daniel_k in his work. Just not the way he’s doing it now.
There was no comment on the accusations of purposely crippling Creative hardware in Windows Vista, in favor of perhaps coming products. People were glad to finally get a response from Creative, but most are just saying: too little, too late. We will just have to wait and see if they’re right.
