Le 22/02/2012 10:18, Invisible a écrit :
> But that's nothing compared to what happened when I tried to get my
> expensive outboard sound card to work. Because you know what? It turns
> out that this premium-grade pro-audio device DOES NOT HAVE 64BIT DRIVERS
> AVAILABLE. Yes, you read that correctly. It's 2012, the device is still
> in production, and the makers haven't bothered to write the necessary
> drivers yet. There isn't even any indication that they /intend/ to write
> such drivers. WTF?


Consider the producer point of view: the premium-grade pro-audio is made
in China, at low cost, since the design has been made in some marketing
office with a quick validation. The 32 bits driver came from a long line
of evolving model (hint: now it's the hardware which customised to map
to the previous model emulation). In fact, the driver might be claiming
compatibility with (aka knowledge of) 2000 & XP (they are not aware of
the internal change in Vista & 7, but that's not important as long as
the OS does the adaptation to use an XP driver).

Providing a 64 bits driver, even just copying actual functionality of
the 32 bits one, would mean investing in a new development and no
warranty of success (some API changed so well in 2008/Vista/7, it might
be more complex to be as safe as expected by the new OS... ).

Icing on the cake, delivering a 64 bits driver for Window make it
mandatory (unless the user are happy booting with F8 to disable driver
authentication) to provide a signed installation set of files (the
catalog file(s) must be signed, and this prohibit any update to the dll
as well as the inf file). Self-signing is no go. It must be delivered by
a CA trusted by MS. And that costs money (at least about $1000 per year).

Cherry on the top of the cake, the installation directories on 64 bits
windows are named with strange concept in mind (C:\Windows\system and
C:\windows\system32 are not containing what you might expect for a 64
bits system...)

So, from a seller point of view: market is gamers and alike, 99% of the
game are 32 bits (maybe 100% ?), so market is 32 bits. And that come at
no extra cost. Developing 64 bits would cost edge-competence, initial
money and recurring money, and is not required by market share (less
than 1% ? 64 bits people are not in gaming, so no need for a sound card).

Choice was:
 * invest nothing, gains 1
 * invest a lot, gains 1.01

Your bet ?

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