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I can't believe companies were totally cool with shipping very expensive family computers in 2000 with "no sound support." Lol.

forgotusername6 3y ago
I remember the intense frustration of my first computer of having to select which sound card you had for certain games. Oh sure, your computer did come with sound, but not for this game as your card wasn't on the list of supported cards.
- jackvalentine 3y ago
  My memory was pretty much every cheap ISA/PCI card could emulate the SoundBlaster 16 though. I kinda loved fiddling with the sound configs. (I had a very much not cheap Ensoniq SoundScape Elite)
jeffbee 3y ago
"Precision Workstation" was not marketed to home users. It was a real workstation. The Dell home systems were Inspiron and Dimension.
deleted 3y ago
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lproven 3y ago
[Author/submitter here] > very expensive family computers in 2000 with "no sound support." This was not a family computer. It was an expensive high-end professional machine. But saying that... yes, you're right, and that is the primary reason why I called it out in the review 23 years ago. I felt it was inexcusable then (and now it looks even worse, of course). The secondary reason, which I couldn't spell out so clearly without losing the magazine several £million in advertising per year, was this: If one of the biggest PC companies selling its own hardware with this OS can't get the sound chip working, this tells you several things: * They are not very expert at doing this and that means they don't really know what they are doing. So, if you want all your devices to work, smoothly, and keep working, you should choose a specialist vendor instead. * That this OS is not really ready for prime time yet because even a major vendor can't get its sound support working, so watch out, and don't buy this for any kind of audio work. In other words, pointing out a minor flaw was my way of putting up a big warning sign.

forgotusername6 3y ago

I remember the intense frustration of my first computer of having to select which sound card you had for certain games. Oh sure, your computer did come with sound, but not for this game as your card wasn't on the list of supported cards.

jackvalentine 3y ago
My memory was pretty much every cheap ISA/PCI card could emulate the SoundBlaster 16 though. I kinda loved fiddling with the sound configs. (I had a very much not cheap Ensoniq SoundScape Elite)

jeffbee 3y ago

"Precision Workstation" was not marketed to home users. It was a real workstation. The Dell home systems were Inspiron and Dimension.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

lproven 3y ago

[Author/submitter here] > very expensive family computers in 2000 with "no sound support." This was not a family computer. It was an expensive high-end professional machine. But saying that... yes, you're right, and that is the primary reason why I called it out in the review 23 years ago. I felt it was inexcusable then (and now it looks even worse, of course). The secondary reason, which I couldn't spell out so clearly without losing the magazine several £million in advertising per year, was this: If one of the biggest PC companies selling its own hardware with this OS can't get the sound chip working, this tells you several things: * They are not very expert at doing this and that means they don't really know what they are doing. So, if you want all your devices to work, smoothly, and keep working, you should choose a specialist vendor instead. * That this OS is not really ready for prime time yet because even a major vendor can't get its sound support working, so watch out, and don't buy this for any kind of audio work. In other words, pointing out a minor flaw was my way of putting up a big warning sign.