Dan wrote: > > http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/23708.html > This does not look good for OpenGL / DRI. > The article is not very specific though. > I assume that xfree86 doesn't use anything affected by these patents, > otherwise it wouldn't be able to carry it's current license. Is this > correct? > However The Register has some good points about what this means for > OpenGL support from hardware manufacturers. > Any comments?
Someone else asked for my comments yesterday, here's what I wrote. ------ Well, it's disappointing to hear that SGI is selling off still more of its assets, especially to Microsoft. It strikes me as short-sighted thinking by SGI. The consequences of Microsoft holding these patents is hard to predict. I don't know how many patents are involved nor the nature of them, though I'd guess that they're hardware-centric. That could be a big problem for the various hardware vendors if Microsoft decides to take an offensive position with the patents. I don't think I have anything to worry about with Mesa (at least for now). Most of the algorithms used in Mesa are very widely used and have been around for a long time. What would Microsoft have to gain by going after me/Mesa? Certainly not money. The ill-will they'd generate would only further tarnish their image. As Mesa adopts newer graphics techniques (like vertex and frament- level programming) I have to be mindful of stepping on other's intellectual property, but that hasn't been a big deal so far. NVIDIA, for example, was very agreeable when I asked for permission to include their NV_vertex_program extension in Mesa. Don't take my comments as gospel though. I don't know what Microsoft's up to and I'm not especially knowledgeable of patent issues. -Brian _______________________________________________ Dri-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dri-devel
