LeeE wrote:
> On Wednesday 28 November 2007 12:40, Jon S. Berndt wrote:
> > This is very interesting:
> >
> > http://www.microsoft.com/esp/
> > http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2216455,00.asp
> >
> > Jon
>
> This _is_ interesting.
>
> FlightGear (and SimGear), as it (they) are, should be ok re patents
> because it (they) pre-date(s) MS-ESP. We might have to be careful
> about major re-designs or major new features though.
<snip>
> The troubling thing about MS-ESP is that it encroaches on our
> 'turf',
it will be proprietary in format and it will be tied to the MS platforms
> and licencing. Hopefully though, it will be irrelevant to FG.
I think it is interesting, but I doubt there is anything for us to worry about.
In
fact we might feel flattered that MS have followed our lead in opening up
the environment to external I/O ;)
My take on this is that ESP is simply MS opening up the FS-X environment
to new markets that want the graphical environment, but don't like their FDM
(which isn't particularly surprising - from what I've heard the FDM isn't much
to write home about).
Given this, we don't need to worry any more about MS patents than we did
before the announcement, i.e. hardly at all. All the I/O stuff they've announced
is already present in FG.
I think their target market is very much the big boys - this is
only available under volume-licensing, so no-one is going to be buying this
just to have a play around with it. I guess what is much more likely is that
some
simulator manufacturers will be looking at this for their eye-candy rather
than developing it in-house.
Academia is another market, but that is one in which FG should be able to
offer a much better solution.
In fact, this might be quite an opportunity for FG - there is the chance to
market
ourselves as an open alternative to MS-ESP.
-Stuart
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