The S3TC Patent Finally Expires Next Week - S3 Texture Compression

[phoronix]

Phoronix: The S3TC Patent Finally Expires Next Week - S3 Texture Compression

If you need an extra reason to celebrate this weekend, next week the notorious S3 Texture Compression (S3TC) patent is set to expire!..

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=S3TC-Patent-Expires-Next-Week

[eydee]

Happens right when Mesa is becoming irrelevant, as AMD no longer sells video cards, and Intel IGPs are as shitty as always.

[Deavir]

This is why 20 years for software patents is too long.

[tildearrow]

Mesa is becoming irrelevant, as AMD no longer sells video cards

What are you talking about?

Intel IGPs are as shitty as always.

Think of the people that can't afford a graphics card, or laptop users?

[crymsonpheonix]

What are you talking about?



Think of the people that can't afford a graphics card, or laptop users?

Don't feed the trolls.

[caligula]

This is why 20 years for software patents is too long.

But think of the children of the lawy..I mean inventors! They've worked so hard so they totally deserve billions. Why do you hate the rich?

[Veerappan]

Good. I've been knowingly waiting for this for over a decade...

[ElectricPrism]

Someone please explain how this effects any current scenario real world situation for the better?

[andrei_me]

Someone please explain how this effects any current scenario real world situation for the better?

It can be included by default in some distros which it is not present, giving better out-of-the-box experience.

[Mabhatter]

I remember when S3 Savage video cards came out. I think I had the Savage 4 from Diamond.. swapped from a 3Dfx Voodoo because the new integrated 2D+3D chip from S3 was a little ahead of 3Dfx for its price. S3TC was a big thing then because it got accepted into DirectX and it really let things look nice for the time.