A creative example of the value of free drivers

That seems to be true for some of the features in the modified driver (AC3 encoding), but not
for others.  It seems that the Vista drivers for particular Creative hardware expose fewer
features than the XP equivalent.

Using an operating system upgrade as an opportunity to sell a customer new hardware that they
don't need seems to be the bigger story.  With free drivers, the hardware vendor isn't
required to keep them working for obsolete hardware, but there is nothing wrong with a third
party doing the work (as has happened here with the Vista drivers).