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openSUSE Hobbled By Microsoft Patents
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Tue Apr 10, 2007 07:38 AM
from the or-at-least-disfigured dept.
from the or-at-least-disfigured dept.
kripkenstein writes "openSUSE 10.2 no longer enables ClearType (which would improve the appearance of fonts). The reason given on the openSUSE mailing list for not enabling it is, 'this feature is covered by several Microsoft patents and should not be activated in any default build of the library.'
As reported on and discussed, this matter may be connected to the Microsoft-Novell deal. If so, Novell should have received a license for the Microsoft patents, assuming the deal covered all relevant patents. Does the license therefore extend only to SUSE, but not openSUSE?"
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Prior art (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Prior art (Score:5, Insightful)
Indeed he did. Not that the idea itself merits a patent anyways. It is pretty obvious and shopuld not be patentable in the first place.
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Re:Prior art (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Prior art (Score:5, Insightful)
However, after using it for a day or two, turning it off is absolutely painful. IMHO, it really DOES make text MUCH easier to read on an LCD.
-Tom
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Re:Prior art (Score:5, Informative)
I'm afraid the decades-old Apple II and IBM PC is not prior art. Pixels are either on or off for Apple II and IBM PC's CGA displays, so they apparently don't (and can't) care too much about color fringing. Sub-pixel font rendering on LCD screen deals with 256 shades for each sub-pixel, and the emphasis is on how to adjust sub-pixel brightness to reduce color fringing.
This is explained in Steve Gibson's Turning Theory into Practice [grc.com]. Sub-pixel font rendering is not the same as sub-pixels on CGA displays. The ideas are related, but the plumbing is different.
Perhaps I'm misleading in saying that CGA is not prior art of ClearType. I haven't actually read the patents of ClearType, so I obviously cannot tell; I'm basing my claim solely on Steve's webpage alone.
Parent
Re:Prior art (Score:5, Informative)
Go look at the circuit diagram for an Apple II, for pete's sake. It's not that complicated, maybe a dozen or so 74-series chips plus the memory and CPU.
Clear type uses exactly the same idea -- pick the color to activate the desired combination of R, G and/or B stripes in the LCD pixel -- i.e. activate the desired sequence of horizontal dots by color choice.
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Novell is the Judas Goat. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Novell is the Judas Goat. (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:It is about precedents (Score:5, Funny)
In my opinion, open/free Linux is still 5-10 years behind Windows and OSX in terms of desktop functionality
Yeah, a friend of mine has a Windows 95 machine, and I tried it out recently. Man, I was BLOWN AWAY. I've been wasting productivity on my Gentoo and Ubuntu machines, when all this time Windows 95 just makes it much easier. I mean, it looks and functions better, and everything just works. My friend showed me how to take all my LaTeX files (100 or so) for my book, with all the revision history in Git, and convert it all to Microsoft Word. Wow! Productivity SQUARED! After watching my reaction, my firend slapped me on the head (really hard) and exclaimed, "It's the APPS, stupid!"
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Prior art? (Score:4, Informative)
Now it is clear (Score:4, Insightful)
anti-aliasing makes me need glasses (Score:4, Informative)
Sheldon
It's FreeType for a start! (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly (Score:5, Informative)
Apples and oranges, the bug reporter is confused or trolling.
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It's only the filtering (Score:5, Informative)
Re:It's only the filtering (Score:5, Funny)
I don't want to pay M$ everytime I have a couple of beers....
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Can we now use the GPL? (Score:4, Interesting)
The GPL is very clear on one point: if you know your software infringes on some patent, you can't distribute it, even if you have a deal with the patent holder enabling you to do that*. Can Novell now be prosecuted? Is that code GPLed (it seems to be KDE, so it probably is)?
* Unless that deal is extended to everybody that touches the code.
never so (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a complete non-issue and has been known for a while. It predates the Novell/MS agreement.
Re:never so (Score:5, Informative)
The main developer of FreeType decided to disable the filter [mail-archive.com] in September. The Novell deal was later and had nothing to do with this.
Parent
This is completely clean - (Score:5, Insightful)
Just like openSUSE doesn't ship infringing Linux drivers, or Debian not shipping certain licenses.
What the heck is the fuzz about?
This is what I like about Linux (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft are trying to cripple Linux using traditional methods, but all they can really cripple is openSUSE due to the Novell partnership. It's not like MS can take over EVERY SINGLE DISTRO, particularly the homegrown stuff. A good example of the power of choice I think.
Clear-Type replacement (Score:4, Informative)
http://oyhus.no/SubLCD.html [oyhus.no]
the openSUSE team did the right thing (Score:5, Insightful)
If you want a distro protected (encumbered) by MS patents, buy SUSE Enterprise.
Novell - Just brilliant (Score:5, Insightful)
It really doesn't matter if this is related to the patent deal with Microsoft or not. The damage is done by the mere perception that Novell is aligned with Redmond.
This whole deal is to IT was Iraq is to foreign policy: A bad idea implemented without a clear exit strategy.
Unless the goal was to drive users to Ubuntu. In that case it's a brilliant plan.
Re:Novell - Just brilliant (Score:5, Insightful)
I won't disagree with that statement, but that's no excuse for this ridiculous story posted to Slashdot. For all of the griping around here about other companies' FUD, this is basically pure FUD itself. Alas, it's not an isolated case. It's too bad so many people read this site - it's a very poor source of information if you just scan the front page.
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