Intel Clears Up Microcode Licensing Controversy - Simpler License, Allows Benchmarking

[juanrga]

Intel is going to die a horrible death, once everything is moved on with ARM (no matter for their license to fuck around with ARM cpus)

ARM and RISC-V. Don't forget RISC-V!

Moreover, there is a rumor about Intel working in a hybrid architecture that can execute both x86 and ARM.

[chilinux]

Be warned that the tweet from Imad Sousou last year was extremely misleading. The Intel VP Chief Architect of spin for Intel "open" source implied that they did more than just change the microcode license and that they fixed the Intel license in general.

However, the Intel license including an anti-benchmark clause still continues to be used. It can be found here:

https://software.intel.com/en-us/license/eula-for-intel-software-development-products?elqTrackId=f17c7217464f46059dbb1121b52158c3&elqaid=20555&elqat=2

You can find references to it still being used with such products as the Intel OpenVino Toolkit as can be found here:

https://software.seek.intel.com/openvino-toolkit?os=linux

So, not only do conditions Intel acknowledged are problematic to the open source community still exist in Intel licensing, they are referenced by products Intel state as being "open." That issue wasn't completely cleared up a year ago and is still going on today.

Best part is that if the courts determine benchmarks are a standardized way to review a computer company's product, then the clause might be illegal under the USA federal Consumer Review Fairness Act along with laws in several other states.

I believe 3mdeb that they heard Intel claim they would do changes to licensing that sounds like it would be helpful. However, I also believe Intel is willing to use provisions that may be illegal, use the term "open" in a misleading way and just are all around extremely dishonest. If Intel actually follows through on being helpful, I will be pleasantly surprised. But I still have learned to still expect Imad Sousou style of over promoting "changes" made by Intel while actually under delivering on the results.