Microsoft Patents GPU-accelerated Window Manager

[Vladislaus]

[citation][nom]amk-aka-Phantom[/nom]Fail, dude. I use Linux every day - Ubuntu 10.04, 10.10, 11.04, Debian Squeeze and a bit of Mint (looks best to me, btw).And the version where I had that Plymouth bug was 11.04. As I said, neither open source nor proprietary nVidia drivers helped. As for AMD, I already mentioned the E-350 fail.Linux old hardware support is rather good, but new cards?.. Not a chance!As for I'm better off using... with my hardware, definitely Win7 x64[/citation]
I already mentioned that I had no problem with the E-350. did you installed the latest catalyst?

 

[gogogadgetliver]

[citation][nom]CaedenV[/nom]I thought that Windows was already GPU accelerated for drawing windows. That was one of the big changes between Vista and 7, was the ability to offload all the pretty clear Aero stuff to the GPU instead of bothering the CPU about it all the time. Perhaps this is just a different way to have GPU acceleration?[/citation]

You're correct. Vista is hardware accelerated (wddm 1.0?) and Win 7 removes a software bottleneck and allows multiple GPUs simultaneously.

This may very well be that patent. MS must have been working on it since at least before 2005 if Vista had it.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

I already mentioned that I had no problem with the E-350. did you installed the latest catalyst?

*facepalm* I'm sorry, but questions like "did you install the latest drivers" or "have you tried reinstalling/rebooting/updating" just shouldn't be asked of me. It's plain mockery.

Might've had something to do with the fact that it was a desktop E-350 board...

 

[Vladislaus]

[citation][nom]amk-aka-Phantom[/nom]... and Linux had that since like ever Besides, Windows had it as a third-party application and MS simply didn't care. I wouldn't, if I were them How many users even know what an image is? As for back_by_demand, re-read the post: he was doubting, not denying.[/citation]
Sorry but no, the first composing windows manager to use 3D compositing and effects was Quartz in the Mac OS X 10.0, the 3d effects were software base and not aided by the GPU. In 2002 Apple released Mac OS X 10.2 with Quartz Extreme, it was the first composing windows manager to use gpu acceleration. Linux first gpu accelerated windows manager happened in 2004 with Metacity.

 

[getreal]

[citation][nom]amk-aka-Phantom[/nom]... and Linux had that since like ever Besides, Windows had it as a third-party application and MS simply didn't care. I wouldn't, if I were them How many users even know what an image is? As for back_by_demand, re-read the post: he was doubting, not denying.[/citation]
Doubting / denying, what's the difference? He still proved his ignorance of a platform he constantly trolls. I may troll Android stuff, but I at least owned an Android phone for a year and have first-hand knowledge of the product. This clown clearly has no experience at all and now has zero credibility. Time to make one of your three other troll accounts your primary!

 

[Vladislaus]

[citation][nom]amk-aka-Phantom[/nom]What if there are NO new ones? Ever thought of that?[/citation]
you're talking like the most common GPU makers don't support their hardware on linux that often.

 

[tofu2go]

[citation][nom]fazers_on_stun[/nom]Actually you have to look at the earliest date the patent (or its parent in this case) was filed, not patented. Since the article did not mention the patent number, we can't look it up at the patent office's website, but I would bet it was filed at least two years before its patent date, and probably more.[/citation]


You make a very good point. I've looked up the patient referred to in the story and found it here:

Google Patents link

Apparently the patent was "filed" in 2003 and was not published until 2005. So yes, Apple not only had the idea before Microsoft, they even went as far as implementing it before Microsoft tried to patent the concept.

That said, I did not read the patent, so for all we know everyone might be getting worked up over nothing. It is quite possible that the Microsoft patent is for something very specific, not simply GPU accelerated window management.

 

[Guest]

I'd like to patent left turns.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

Sorry but no, the first composing windows manager to use 3D compositing and effects was Quartz in the Mac OS X 10.0, the 3d effects were software base and not aided by the GPU. In 2002 Apple released Mac OS X 10.2 with Quartz Extreme, it was the first composing windows manager to use gpu acceleration. Linux first gpu accelerated windows manager happened in 2004 with Metacity.

I was talking about native mounting.

you're talking like the most common GPU makers don't support their hardware on linux that often.

Well... yes.

Time to make one of your three other troll accounts your primary!

Could've said the same about you.

 

[gogogadgetliver]

[citation][nom]tofu2go[/nom] It is quite possible that the Microsoft patent is for something very specific, not simply GPU accelerated window management.[/citation]


The patent in the article is about multi-GPU Acceleration (ala WDDM in Win7, not Vista). MS has various GPU patents going back into the 90s but I think Apple did desktop accel first.

Props to Apple but I think the MS implementation is MUCH more impressive. Apple had to make this work on a single display with a single GPU on predetermined hardware through a single 3D API. MS made it happen on multiple GPUs simultaneously on multiple displays and with who knows what hardware with an abstract 3D API all while being legacy compatible. Yikes!

 

[gogogadgetliver]

[citation][nom]getreal[/nom]For one of the biggest trolls against Apple on this site, it is pretty sad for you to have such strong opinions against a product you clearly have such little knowledge of. How embarrassing!Here's your link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz_CompositorI mean wow, you troll so much and know so little! You owned yourself so hard here and have destroyed your credibility in anti-Apple discussions. Thanks for that!Also coming in Windows 8 that Mac OS X has had since at least 2003 - the ability to mount disc images natively![/citation]

Props. But... to borrow a usual apple copout, "MS perfected it". Quartz isn't very impressive next to WDDM.

 

[ProDigit10]

Great! Now we're going to see rain splatter and explosives when we open a folder, and when we want to connect to the internet we'll see a 3D surfer on a skateboard surfing some lines.

Exactly what the doctor ordered! Now I'll be able to work faster with all this 3D! Yes!
3D is what I really needed! /end of sarcasm!

 

[PhilFrisbie]

they might have had it long ago...but clearly they never patented it

That does not matter. Apple clearly has prior art, which should have nullified this patent.

But then again, that is not the way the US patent system works. The patent office basically rubber stamps patent applications and then waits for either the courts or patent review requests to sort it all out

 

[mayne92]

[citation][nom]amk-aka-Phantom[/nom]Fail, dude. I use Linux every day - Ubuntu 10.04, 10.10, 11.04, Debian Squeeze and a bit of Mint (looks best to me, btw).And the version where I had that Plymouth bug was 11.04. As I said, neither open source nor proprietary nVidia drivers helped. As for AMD, I already mentioned the E-350 fail.Linux old hardware support is rather good, but new cards?.. Not a chance!As for I'm better off using... with my hardware, definitely Win7 x64[/citation]
You use Linux everyday but you clearly stated that you have no idea why adding hardware to Windoze just works while with Linux that's hardly the case??? Really?!?!?!

BTW, Linux server hardware support is right on...I wonder why that is?

 

[getreal]

[citation][nom]gogogadgetliver[/nom]Props. But... to borrow a usual apple copout, "MS perfected it". Quartz isn't very impressive next to WDDM.[/citation]

And I am glad. Microsoft sat on its laurels for a long time and has finally gotten its act together, largely because Apple forced it to release a better product. The new mobile OS looks nice, the rumors about the new Xbox sound interesting, and Windows 8 is shaping up to be a nice looking update. Everyone wins here.

 

[lathe26]

...regarding "prior art", the recent changes to patent laws no longer take prior art into account. Soon the only thing that matters is who filed first.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

You use Linux everyday but you clearly stated that you have no idea why adding hardware to [strike]Windoze[/strike] Windows just works while with Linux that's hardly the case??? Really?!?!?!

BTW, Linux server hardware support is right on...I wonder why that is?

I have NOT stated what you're saying. I have stated that hardware support for Linux is crap and so is their method of adding extra drivers.

I have never owned or worked with server hardware, but I readily believed you. Servers is where Linux belongs, not home desktops.

And I am glad. Microsoft sat on its laurels for a long time and has finally gotten its act together, largely because Apple forced it to release a better product. The new mobile OS looks nice, the rumors about the new Xbox sound interesting, and Windows 8 is shaping up to be a nice looking update. Everyone wins here.

Wow, what a troll. The looks is the only thing their mobile OS's got, Xbox must die instead of upgrading its hardware and Windows 8 is a tablet GUI infested nonsense that they'll have to fix in a year in Windows 9 - I don't mind, though, this is the best way to have a public beta: just pretend that your product is finished They did it with Vista...

 

[Vladislaus]

[citation][nom]amk-aka-Phantom[/nom]Well... yes.[/citation]
Go take a look a AMD page for example. Every single time a Catalyst is released to Windows, so is the linux version.
Nvidia? They also have about the same number of releases.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

Go take a look a AMD page for example. Every single time a Catalyst is released to Windows, so is the linux version.
Nvidia? They also have about the same number of releases.

Thing is, the Linux "release" always has some ridiculous problems.

 

[blazorthon]

Linux can use video card RAM as a RAM drive. I never found a way to get that working on windows and I've never had a graphics problem in linux but I've had several in Windows. Granted I use both windows and a few linux distros, mostly because there is no XP driver support for my sound in my laptop.

 

[Vladislaus]

[citation][nom]amk-aka-Phantom[/nom]Thing is, the Linux "release" always has some ridiculous problems.[/citation]
It has issues just like their windows counterparts. But I've yet to encounter a GPU linux driver that had an issue has serious and as wide has the one nVidia had a couple of years back.

 

[hannibal]

Has anyone patented CPU accelerater window Manager... This is getting really weird... I am not happy about this patent system at all. What next? Patent fot APU accelerated window manager, ARM accelerated window manager, patent for "what ever way of making computing" window manager...
So anyone who use some way of "accelerating" window manager is violating some ones patent...
*sigh*

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]getreal[/nom]For one of the biggest trolls against Apple on this site, it is pretty sad for you to have such strong opinions against a product you clearly have such little knowledge of. How embarrassing!Here's your link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz_CompositorI mean wow, you troll so much and know so little! You owned yourself so hard here and have destroyed your credibility in anti-Apple discussions. Thanks for that!Also coming in Windows 8 that Mac OS X has had since at least 2003 - the ability to mount disc images natively![/citation]
Owwww! Your stinging logic has destroyed me, my Superman exterior has been vaporised by your Kryponite!
...
Seriously, you calling me a troll is the worst case of hypocricy I have ever seen, I don't deny disliking Apple but as was pointed out in this instance I asked a question, even going as far as to ask people to provide links, which were promptly provided by you so thank you for plugging a hole in my knowledge base
...
What I find confusing is when asking for a bit of research on other subjects you are nowhere to be found, like 10 things a Windows tablet can do that an iPad can't, despite you and your alter-ego Watcha having all night to look up in Google, Wikipedia, MSFT knowledge base or even roll over in bed and ask Steve Jobs personally, but I guess you can only be bothered to do this when someone attacks Apple and you have to respond
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Where are you when there is a non-Apple story, I can't remember the last time you posted on an article that wasn'tr about them or replying to a snarky comment about Apple, this makes you a totally one-dimensional, Apple obsessed crank with all the depth of a car park puddle
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As for losing my credibility, after this comment, does that mean I had credibility before? Even when I ran jokes about Steve Jobs cancer? Jeez, I guess the bad taste personal remarks and endless points of Apples theft of intellectual property, names, symbols and general poor sportsmanship were all fair game and totally credible, I may have to repost them all again just to go out with a bang
...
See, the thing is because you only pop up when someone rails on Apple and at no other time just shows that this pisses you off, personally, not generically, so what on Earth makes you think I need to respond to you with any credibility, rationality, decency or any other kind of moral compass, I will keep posting comments as normal all over the shop but the second you open your yapping yawn hole people will just swarm to give you grief because you deserve it
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Incidentally Quartz Compositor I suppose will now be the subject of a patent lawsuit from Microsoft, it's about time Apple got a taste of it's own medicine, seeing as it is only a minor componant of OSX perhaps they should go to the same Judge as Apple had for the Samsung tablet case and get a total injunction on all sales of OSX and machines with OSX installed until the matter is resolved

Gotta love the symmetry, the irony and the karma, hilarious

 

[meradz]

I didn't see a link to the patent itself and this article can be misleading. People may be getting all hyped up about this or that OS doing it first for nothing.

I honestly do not think they can get a patent for a GPU accelerated app or interface since it has already been done and can easily be challenged. If anything, they would patent the way it is being accomplished.

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]meradz[/nom]I honestly do not think they can get a patent for a GPU accelerated app or interface since it has already been done and can easily be challenged[/citation]
Three words
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