Ruipenha,
I’m a MOTU user myself and can ditto everything stryd_one said, but unfortunately, there’s a few more nasty angles to it than just the notorious Windows software issues. I was up their ass pretty bad for a while in the Unicornation forum, but figured it wasn’t worth the time it took, so I came out (for the time being, anyway 
).
Some aspects have always been really bad (the busy signal telephone line and “invisible” public relations come to mind), but there seems to have been a gradual change in some other areas, which doesn’t make them look all that great. I’ll try not to get into too much detail, but for a couple: They seem to have locked down every major recording/music magazine over the past few years via advertising funds, as well as building a questionable influence with some of the larger chain stores and websites where you might find reviews and organized “recommendations”. There are issues with their support, as well as certain known problems and incompatibilities with various hardware, which, IMHO, never really makes it through any of those channels. I’m not implying that it’s some major “conspiracy thing”, it’s more just that they seem to have sort of “evolved” as a successful business, by finding out what areas were most profitable to focus on, and went that route, with no intention of correcting any of the problems. Some have actually gotten worse, but whomever it is calling the shots there, obviously does not care to change them, as long as the bulk of the current and future customer base is kept unaware. Myself and others have been totally ignored by support, over repeated inquiries, and then had them suddenly try to contact us directly, only after mention was made in the public forum (which they don’t participate in). They’re also well known to respond with insulting “cut & paste” suggestions from their FAQ info, and usually don’t continue to help, after they realize that the customer actually understands his/her equipment, and has a legitimate, common problem, which needs to be resolved on MOTU’s end (or can’t be).
The failure rate I witnessed from hanging around the UNation forum, was sort of the “last straw” for me, and it helped to explain their ability to keep the costs as low as they usually are. They almost seemed to anticipate a certain (high) percentage of failures, and had set up a support system where you basically pay a flat 80 bucks to have a refurb sent out or something. It sounds like a great deal, but they also only carry a 90 day warranty, and every active user over in that forum seemed to have had some experience with sending their interface back at some point, and somehow they were OK with that. Many have reported sending back interfaces more than once, and having the same issue or failure with the replacement. It really didn’t make any sense to me. The stuff doesn’t really have any moving parts, yet it often died on people within the first few months.
You can’t expect much more at those prices, but it really is “mass-produced, disposable junk”. Not that there’s anything wrong with that (some of my favorite gear is “mass-produced, disposable junk”), but MOTU should be seen as such too. Their history of horrible customer relations and driver support doesn’t earn them anything more than what we all throw at Behringer, Alesis, Mackie or anyone else. I only own one Behringer piece right now, and I actually like it, but I’ve had no serious failures with a whole slew of Alesis & Mackie junk, and the support is miles above MOTU. Well, to be truthful, some of my Alesis crap has some pretty flimsy “moving” parts, but I’ve never had any of the core circuitry go south on me. The 424 MOTU system, on the other hand, scares the hell out me. It works fine now, but I really have no idea of how long it might work. Even if it never croaks, it definitely would not likely be guaranteed compatible with any boards which came out a few generations after it was current. MOTU’s “officially supported” list leaves much to be desired, even when the stuff is still on the shelves.
No offense to Ruipenha, or any fellow MOTU owners here, and I hope none of our stuff gives us any significant amount of grief over time.
Take Care,
George
PS- If you want to read any of it, there should still be a decent amount in that Unicornation hardware forum under “Jidis” from a few months back. Someone else was picking up where I left off when I slowed down. There’s usually at least a couple “summarizers” in there. 8)
