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From:	"Jacob Hawley" <jhawley@creaf.com>
To:	"Greg Smart" <GSmart@tennyson.com.au>, "Jakub Gwozdz" <gwozdziu@uci.agh.edu.pl>
Subject: Re: question about sblive and linux
Date:	Tue, 12 Jan 1999 19:54:31 -0800

To be honest I think that only a very, very small part of the functionality will
be available short term features such as: WAV, Midi, PCM, Simple effects,
Stereo.  This is mostly going to be a resource issue, for example to get where
we are today on Win9x (please it is just an example no flames) it took 6
engineers about 7 months.  I expect that the development of the Linux driver
will be slow until we actually have a library / sourcecode to distribute.

I have literally hundreds of mails today regarding stability of the kernel.  I
strongly believe that if the driver isn't architected right it could cause
problems.  I understand that there is a strong following of capable engineers
for Linux and that they are willing to assist if not do the entire job.  I think
that's great, but I also need to understand what the ramifications are.  I would
hate to have a driver go out that was not capable of being extended to support
the full features of our EMU10K1 chip.

NT is mute because it is fundamentally broken, period.  That any hardware works
on that OS is amazing.

Creative not unwilling to provide programming information, there simply isn't
any because it hasn't been written.  We have almost never given this type of
information out, instead we have exposed functionality through API's (Windows
centric).  So we have to work on writing the documents, sample source code, etc.

I am actively looking to hire engineers to help with this task, because I am
looking for a long term and permanent solution.  I am looking to build a team
that will be able to support Linux on more than just one product, which includes
bug fixes, development tools, and feature enhancements.

regards,
Jake
-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Smart <GSmart@tennyson.com.au>
To: 'Jacob Hawley' <jhawley@creaf.com>; Jakub Gwozdz <gwozdziu@uci.agh.edu.pl>
Cc: Linux (Kernel Reflector) <linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu>
Date: Tuesday, January 12, 1999 4:08 PM
Subject: RE: question about sblive and linux


>hello Jacob,
>
>The real question here is when you do release a driver, will
>it allow Linux users to effectively use the SB Live hardware.
>Creative's track record on windows NT drivers isn't that good.
>If the register definitons and tech info were made public
>(does this really threaten Creative's business?) then you will
>find a lot of volunteers willing to get a driver out a lot faster. For
>a product like a sound card, people will happily use an alternative
>card if drivers are not available, so any delay costs. You should
>also consider that there isn't much interest in adding proprietry
>components to the linux kernel.
>
>cheers
>Greg Smart
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Jacob Hawley [SMTP:jhawley@creaf.com]
>> Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 1999 5:45 AM
>> To: Jakub Gwozdz
>> Cc: Linux (Kernel Reflector)
>> Subject: Re: question about sblive and linux
>>
>> Currently the answer is no.  We are actively developing a driver, but it
>> will
>> take some months before it is ready.  My suggestion to you is that if you
>> want a
>> sound card that works I would suggest one of the ISA or Sound Blaster PCI
>> (formerly Ensoniq) products.  These already have drivers available in the
>> kernel.
>>
>> Jake
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Jakub Gwozdz <gwozdziu@uci.agh.edu.pl>
>> To: jacob_hawley@msn.com <jacob_hawley@msn.com>
>> Date: Tuesday, January 12, 1999 8:39 AM
>> Subject: question about sblive and linux
>>
>>
>> >
>> >I would like to buy SBLive! or SBLive! Value, but i don't know if it will
>> >work with linux. Could you tell me (and/or inster this information on
>> your
>> >web site), if SBLive will work on linux at least as SB16? Just until
>> >Creative write it's own libraries for ALSA?
>> >
>> >Best regards
>> >
>> >Jakub Gwozdz
>> >student of computer sciences at AGH, Krakow, Poland
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>> -
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>
>-
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