Microsoft Joins Open Invention Network With Its 60,000+ Patents

[You-]

I am waiting for the other foot to drop - what is the benefit to them.

Are they being sued by an OIN member over some patent infringement?

[ms178]

Maybe, we will see a gaming focused Linux distribution from them after all.

[shmerl]

Maybe, we will see a gaming focused Linux distribution from them after all.

Not before they'll start supporting Vulkan on Xbox.

[andreano]

From the article:

while in turn members can utilize OIN patents/licenses royalty-free

Just like Aomedia, which Microsoft also cofounded. Aside from PR, the benefit of such alliances is less uncertainty and fewer intra-alliance lawsuits, which are always a net loss to the alliance as a whole.

I guess that's the real reason. Not that that's any less great news.

[ms178]

Not before they'll start supporting Vulkan on Xbox.

Or they get DX12 to run on Linux, too. Their Direct X Shader Compiler already got some commits to get Linux support.

[duby229]

Is Microsoft lowkey becoming one of the good guys? Strange days... but welcome news nonetheless.

Definitely not. It wasn't even that long ago when MS used SCO to sue the hell out of linux distributions because of patents. No doubt at all this is that same tactic.

[shmerl]

Or they get DX12 to run on Linux, too. Their Direct X Shader Compiler already got some commits to get Linux support.

I think DX is too coupled with Windows kernel to run on other OSes with full performance. So Vulkan it is. Plus, DX12 offers nothing that Vulkan doesn't already have.

[duby229]

I think DX is too coupled with Windows kernel to run on other OSes with full performance. So Vulkan it is. Plus, DX12 offers nothing that Vulkan doesn't already have.

Well, of course it can be done and it's already being done. Even on Windows MS is using some sort of IR, on Linux that IR is itself Vulkan. DXVK is just as much a DX implementation as MS's is..... And it will almost certainly equal or better MS's implementation.....

[macemoneta]

According to ZDNet:

"Keith Bergelt, OIN's CEO, commented on Microsoft's announcement in an interview: "This is everything Microsoft has, and it covers everything related to older open-source technologies such as Android, the Linux kernel, and OpenStack; newer technologies such as LF Energy and HyperLedger, and their predecessor and successor versions."

So that answers the Android question.

[shmerl]

It's not about IR, it's about kernel features that differ between Windows and Linux. DX relies on some of those for performance. So DX without Windows is always somewhat crippled.