How good is dirver support in Linux for Creative soundcard(s)?

[DaRuSsIaMaN]

I'm considering trying out Linux in some not-too-distant future. I'm also currently doing serious shopping for a sound card. That is, I will definitely order a new sound card today or in a couple days (by end of this weekend for sure). I saw one review on newegg that said in passing: "I guess open source drivers is just a problem with Creative products in general." So, do you guys agree? Should I stay away from Creative if I want to use it with Linux (playing BF 1942 in Linux, in particular)?

Thanks.

 

[donkey42]

well, when i started my Linux journey i was using a crappy onboard AC/97 & 1 even crappier speaker, now i have a Creative SB Audigy SE & sound has always worked by default on any distro i tried (excluding Gentoo), driver support for sound card doesn't seem to be an issue

BTW: presumably AT will agree but be more technical probably recommending the ALSA sound system over OSS

Edit:

Should I stay away from Creative if I want to use it with Linux (playing BF 1942 in Linux, in particular)?

no, not in my limited experience

 

[Addis]

I have an Audigy 2 ZS card and it works ok in Linux. The emu10k driver works well enough but I don't tax my sound card much at all so I don't know how well it works with advanced configurations.

 

[Anti-Trend]

I also have an EMU10k1, and it works wonderfully. But all Creative-brand cards are not alike. They are extremely sneaky about their marketing and branding, which makes it tough to know what you're getting. For example, a lot of cards labeled as Audigys don't have a proper chip, but the Creative equivalent of an AC97... and that's one expensive AC97!

 

[megamaced]

I don't think all the latest X-FI cards are supported yet. Most are of course, but I am not sure how feature complete the Linux implementations are.

Best advise I can give is simply choose the card you want, then google it. Check that the card works with Alsa.