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Are the free Open Sound System audio drivers crippled?

April 26, 2017audio crippled Drivers Free sound system

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Are the free Open Sound System audio drivers crippled?

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The reason 4Front is still charging $40 for copies of the driver is that they are selling the non-SoundBlaster drivers. Caldera only licensed the drivers for true SB and 100%-compatible cards. Note that there are some cards that call themselves “SoundBlaster compatible” but are not. These cards have an 8-bit SB-lookalike mode, but it takes special instructions to put the card in SB compatability mode. These cards are not supported by the drivers Caldera licensed, but are supported by other drivers from 4Front. Also, some of the more advanced SB cards (like the AWE64) come with an Emu8000 synthesis chip. These also require a special driver from 4Front.