Microsoft, slightly less evil? Makes huge patent contribution to OSS

[Stefan Payne]

On 10/11/2018 at 6:59 PM, Terryv said:

This is a huge potential boost to linux in the future. DX support? I hope so.

Its not totally improbable that they might move towards moving Windows to Open Source.

THAT would kill Linux instantaneously...

 

And it wouldn't be a bad move, would it? 

[Stefan Payne]

11 hours ago, Jito463 said:

Windows Mobile Phone.

I really loved my Nokia Lumia 925 and the Windows Phone 8.1 on it. It was awesome.

Sadly they totally fucked it up with Phone 7 and the "Apple Take"...

Too bad, was an awesome mobile OS...

[Jito463]

1 minute ago, Stefan Payne said:

I really loved my Nokia Lumia 925 and the Windows Phone 8.1 on it. It was awesome.

I don't use it as a phone anymore, but I still have my Samsung BlackJack II with WM 6.  It was basically Samsung's answer to the Blackberry.  Over a decade old and still running with the original battery.  I've even had to fall back on it a couple times, when I had some issues with my last (Asus) cell phone and needed to send it in for warranty repair.  Not their best mobile OS for features, but it's rock solid dependable.

[jagdtigger]

On 10/11/2018 at 6:59 PM, Terryv said:

This is a huge potential boost to linux in the future. DX support? I hope so.

Not really, besides. Why use a proprietary crap when we already have a better cross platform open source alternative that is just as good?

[Arika]

22 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

Not really, besides. Why use a proprietary crap when we already have a better cross platform open source alternative that is just as good?

i assume you're talking about Vulkan.

 

while it would be nice for future games to run on a consistent platform, it does nothing for games already released that run on DX, So if DX was able to run on Linux, then MUCH more games would be possible on Linux.

[Jito463]

11 minutes ago, Arika S said:

if DX was able to run on Linux, then MUCH more games would be possible on Linux

While I can see the appeal, that's exactly why I don't believe it will happen (at least not any time in the near future).  At best, MS might open source earlier versions such as dx8 and before, but considering the near stranglehold they have on the gaming market, I just don't see them giving it up easily.

[jagdtigger]

33 minutes ago, Arika S said:

i assume you're talking about Vulkan.

 

while it would be nice for future games to run on a consistent platform, it does nothing for games already released that run on DX, So if DX was able to run on Linux, then MUCH more games would be possible on Linux.

Well Vulkan is kinda an offspring of Mantle. And consoles run on AMD chips AFAIK. Guess what, with Vulkan they could have less problems with porting it over to PC. Not mention it is not only crossplatform but you can target all MS OS's with one build.... (Unlike say DX12 and you dont have to leave out new instructions so you can reach a wider audience.)

[john01dav]

I would just like to point out that dx12 can run on Linux. There is a project called dxvk that implements it on top of Vulkan.

[Stefan Payne]

2 hours ago, jagdtigger said:

Well Vulkan is kinda an offspring of Mantle.

As is DX12 as well.

Its probable that AMD gave the Mantel specifications to both the Khronos Group and Microsoft wich made their own version of that.

 

Quote

And consoles run on AMD chips AFAIK. Guess what, with Vulkan they could have less problems with porting it over to PC.

For PS4, yes.

But Vulkan doesn't work on XBox One IIRC.

So they can also use the XBox Version.

 

Also there is the UWP stuff yu can see in some Microsoft Games like Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 4...

So you can run the game on both the One and PC - with DX12 on both.

 

Quote

Not mention it is not only crossplatform but you can target all MS OS's with one build.... (Unlike say DX12 and you dont have to leave out new instructions so you can reach a wider audience.)

Yeah but who doesn't have Windows 10??

It was free for a year or so...

 

So there are reasons for both to exist or choose either of them...

And while Vulkan might be good right now, OpenGL was it at the time too but became a total clusterfuck with all that extension bullshit, so that you have to essentially write the code two times - once for nVidia, once for AMD.

And there is no reference renderer so you don't know how it should look and other legacy shit from the 80s!!

 

The Initial Release of OpenGL was in 1992 - when there were just rudimentary 3D Accelerators, if any. For example at the time there wasn't even a PCI BUS or rather it was just introduced!

So the best shit when OpenGL was developed was the Proprietary Micro Channel Architecture from IBM and the more open 32bit ISA Version (EISA) - wich ran at 8MHz!

The MCA ran at up to 20MHz IIRC. So both were rather slow...

 

As for processors:
In 1992 the i486 was just introduced a couple of years prior. The latest one was the i486DX2 that was just released in 1992 - 3 years after the initial release of the i486DX (with 20/25MHz in 1989)

[jagdtigger]

1 hour ago, Stefan Payne said:

But Vulkan doesn't work on XBox One IIRC.

Only thing preventing it is MS..... If it runs on AMD chip then the support is there in the HW.

 

1 hour ago, Stefan Payne said:

Yeah but who doesn't have Windows 10??

 

Anyone who cares about their privacy and wants a stable non-alpha stage OS?

 

1 hour ago, Stefan Payne said:

Also there is the UWP stuff yu can see in some Microsoft Games like Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 4...

You mean that garbage that had so many issues that no-one uses it? (Despite its their 5th attempt including WP.)

 

1 hour ago, Stefan Payne said:

And while Vulkan might be good right now, OpenGL was it at the time too but became a total clusterfuck with all that extension bullshit, so that you have to essentially write the code two times - once for nVidia, once for AMD.

Do you really think they gonna make the same mistake twice?

[Commodus]

To elaborate on what others said, this is really an acknowledgment that Microsoft's revenue increasingly comes from services, not Windows licenses.  It'd rather make sure you can run Azure on a Linux server and keep paying for years than rack up some Windows sales that won't be renewed for years.

 

It's also a reflection of the company under Nadella.  Ballmer really did act as if Microsoft was entitled to have a WIndows monopoly in everything at all times, and the earlier patent licensing scheme was meant to punish companies for daring to use Not Windows (i.e. Android).  He thought he could put the genie back in the bottle by making it expensive to use Google's software.  Nadella realized that Microsoft had responded way too late and that the company is best off trying to make money from the way the market is, not trying to pretend it's forever 2006 (i.e. before the iPhone).