Line6/macintel: Don't Buy Their Product, Line6 don't develop the drivers Options

[LeoEffe]

Hi guys, I have a Line6 Toneport Ux1, a good interface for a bassist like me. I used it for a couple of month with my Macg4 mirrored drive, but I bought a new MacMini Intel, checking before if Line6 advise of incompatibility. no signal on their site or other forums.

now I have a Toneport and a MacMini but: LINE6 PRODUCT DOESN'T WORK WITH MACINTEL AND LINE6 DON'T WANT TO DEVELOP THE DRIVERS UNTIL SEPTEMBER OR OCTOBER 2006. ARE THEY CRAZY????? All the major software company have released their driver for MacIntel and they pretend we wait 9 month?

Don't buy Line6 product, not only if you have a MacIntel, but because a company that is so less affordable, and so less careful for his customer..... there are surely better company!

bye
Leo

[lepetitmartien]

Line6 is a small company, they have just released new products. They surely don't have the developers (If I recollect the article in SoS, he's one and only) not the money to sort new drivers with a magic wand. And there's another point, by waiting till fall, they will be able to test on most of the new intel based Mac range, which is good for customers. Line6 is serious on the mac commitment from day one but you just can't ask them to go faster than the music.

You did a hardware move in a foggy situation, it's not their fault. Save they should have said sooner, but did they know before that? I doubt it. It's not their job to screw people, on the contrary, like most manufacturer they like happy customers, not angry ones. They announced when they had something to announce. There are other drivers in the blue, other software editors (Propellerheads for instance) who are even more evasive.

When some major OS/Hardware issue arise, like the Intel CPU switch, decisions should only be made on sure grounds, not on lack of information. The best friend of the computer musician is: "wait til upgrade". Your buy in route should not be driven by marketing but by a clear upgrade path enabling you to work.

[LeoEffe]

Ok, but why Line6 after 9 month after the Apple notice of the future MacIntel, and after 3 months the release of the first Intel Mac, has not communicate any notice about incompatibility on their site?

Why they add a notice only after I and another customer have wrote on their forum (they said it)? It's not correct, don't you agree? All the Audio company wrote about that.

I agree with you that I bought a IntelMac in a foggy situation, but my previous G4 is dead, I wasn't agree with him :-) but he prefer to do a suicide! I choose a Intel because Line 6 doen't signal incompatibility issue and all the major company are delivering sw in Universal binary. I develop also, and if you develop well the migration is really simple.

So I say, DON'T BUY LINE6 PRODUCTS, they can't support you! They are good guys, the products are good, but they can't support their products!

If someone want a Line6 Toneport write me, is brand new!
Bye
L

[edge100]

Ok, but why Line6 after 9 month after the Apple notice of the future MacIntel, and after 3 months the release of the first Intel Mac, has not communicate any notice about incompatibility on their site?

Why they add a notice only after I and another customer have wrote on their forum (they said it)? It's not correct, don't you agree? All the Audio company wrote about that.

I agree with you that I bought a IntelMac in a foggy situation, but my previous G4 is dead, I wasn't agree with him :-) but he prefer to do a suicide! I choose a Intel because Line 6 doen't signal incompatibility issue and all the major company are delivering sw in Universal binary. I develop also, and if you develop well the migration is really simple.

So I say, DON'T BUY LINE6 PRODUCTS, they can't support you! They are good guys, the products are good, but they can't support their products!

If someone want a Line6 Toneport write me, is brand new!
Bye
L

I truly feel bad that you have a product that doesn't work with your beautiful new Intel Mac (I know they're beautiful...I have one!)

But caveat emptor, my friend. It is YOUR responsibility to ensure that your products work with your new computer. You KNEW that the Intel architecture would require driver re-writes (or at least, you should have known), and thus you should have checked with the manufacturers or ALL of your gear to ensure everything would be ok.

For example, I have an M-Audio USB Duo interface, and I knew there were no drivers for it, so I knew I couldn't use it with my new iMac. As it turns out, I plugged it in last week and it works just fine, so sometimes you get lucky.

But YOU have to take responsibility for YOUR OWN setup. It's really not L6's fault here. I have a PodXT, and I think its a great product. They're sometimes a little slow on updates, but the products speak for themselves. Maybe they should post a notice on their website, but you also have a responsibility to check first. L6 has a great user forum, and I'm sure someone over there could have told you it wouldn't work!

[lepetitmartien]

If you want the support of a huge company, go Yamaha, all others are way smaller, and Line6 in this regard is really small. Their product are great, they ARE committed but they must have a schedule to get things done. And I'm not sure you understand the constraints a small company has to face, each time there's a big transition there's delay to have everything at hand. I've seen the system 6 to 7, the 68k to PPC, and now the macintels, drivers and products have never been updated or issued right away. NEVER.

A manufacturer/editor needs:
- the computers (and in our case, the real ones, not the development platform, we're not developing a word processor)
- the developer, usually has already lots of things on his boat.
- time, depending of the job, it can be time consuming, especially if they did some trcks at low level or if they ware developing using CodeWarrior (which I doubt)
- a compatible schedule, when you issue new material as they did, you focus first before and after the launch on these.

To communicate, a manufacturer/editor needs:
- some news! You don't announce you don't know. And if they had not started the intel OS X drivers, they can't even give:
- a schedule, no good announcing when you don't have a clue at all

Sure, they can be morons too, but given Line6 records and achievements, I'm pretty sure they are not.

What would you have said if they had announced "yes we are developing driver, but we don't know when they will be out" or had given a date they didn't even know if was right?

In transitional periods it's up to the manufacturer/editors to keep customers informed when they can do it (the faster the better) and it's up to customers to plan their upgrades accordingly to what is KNOWN.

For your Line6 we have a classified section, if you don't want to wait the few months to clear things out.