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linux vs. windows in the sound arena



Here's a little story for you to compare linux and windows in the
sound arena.

When I built my box I didn't bother to buy a sound card.  I didn't
want to put much money into sound, and I certainly didn't want a card
that wouldn't work (in debian).  Recently I came across some sound
cards that are available to me for free.  All of them are old and have
ISA connectors.

One of those cards was a "Vibra16" by Creative Labs.  I rebuilt my
kernel with the sb module enabled and viola, it worked great.  Only 16
bit sound, but who cares?

Yesterday I put some fans in my machine, and one of them had a bad
power connector.  It's the 4-pin style that hooks directly to the
power supply.  One of the pins got pushed so that a bit of metal was
sticking out of the plastic housing.  I didn't notice that until it
made sparks and toasted the main chip on that sound card.

Today I looked through the pile of cards and found another Sound
Blaster made by Creative Labs.  I also learned that none of the cards
in that pile work with either Win98 or Win2k!  I threw that SB in my
machine and it was detected.  The sound was horrible, though.  A
little experimenting to find the right IRQ and it works fine now.  In
fact, it is a Sound Blaster Pro and the kernel gives this message :
    SB 3.01 detected OK (220)
    <Sound Blaster Pro (8 BIT ONLY) (3.01)> at 0x220 irq 5 dma 1,5
    SB DSP version is just 3.01 which means that your card is
    several years old (8 bit only device) or alternatively the sound driver
    is incorrectly configured.
LOL!

Linux wins a clear knockout in this round!  It only took 1 reboot too,
for inserting the hardware.

-D

-- 

A kindhearted woman gains respect,
but ruthless men gain only wealth.
        Proverbs 11:16


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