Hold your horses: Creative has Vista drivers coming… some time next year
The almighty Creative has finally answered our questions about its minimal driver support for Vista.
Creative ignored our first and most pressing question: why it has been unable to produce stable release drivers, while at the same time graphics card maker nVIDIA has fully-supported, WHQL-certified drivers for Vista RC2. Are sound cards seriously more difficult to support than graphics cards?
Creative only recently released unsupported beta drivers for Vista RC1.
The company did, however, respond to why it hadn’t sooner released the RC1 drivers to the public.
“Creative will ensure quality and stability before releasing,” it said, adding “… there is constant fine tuning of specs on Microsoft’s part, and it is essential for Creative to re-test and fine tune.”
Microsoft several weeks ago released final code for Vista to component and software makers in advance of the November 30 launch to businesses and January launch to consumers.
When asked about RC2 support, Creative reminded us that it continues to work with Microsoft “to finetune,” saying “We will certainly release updated drivers when they are available. These driver releases are also dependent on the Vista OS release as different versions at different times may require modification of drivers.”
When queried on exactly what cards won’t work under Vista, and why, Creative didn’t exactly give us a detailed list. Instead, it said, “Creative will support [the] majority of its sound cards.”
The great unwashed minority can go suck a lemon, it seems.
So, when can we expect to see supported drivers? It reckons “… in end of the year and Q1 next year.”
Creative declined to allow its comments to be attributed to a named spokesperson at the company
