I'm out of the loop, where can I find background information?
It is only affecting Fedora and openSuse. Not affected are Arch, Gentoo, Ubuntu and Debian.
* The hardware-acceleration is within the hardware and not in software - that is why it is named *hardware acceleration*. Fedoras decision doesn't make sense.
* In Europe you cannot patent software - because you cannot patent logic. Sometimes software-patents are granted because the patent system is dysfunctional but these patents get revoked when challenged.
* I doubt you can even defend a "software-patent" in America if challenged.
* RedHat is weakening its position of Fedora (and of Linux) historically by similar decisions. Fedora is working well on desktops and laptops. But it is not acceptable for end-users to add extra repositories from RPMFUSION to get basic features working. The success of Canonicals Ubuntu is building up on this.
* They're not removing it for Fedora <= 36. Removing features is evil. Ff Fedora is certain about their point-of-view they had to remove it, too?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33638975
I think someone within the AOM needs to tell Qualcomm in polite words that another decade of missing hardware-acceleration and patent-trolling is not acceptable.
If you're worried about software-patents. I recommend moving the legal domicile and hosting servers to Europe. I'm sorry America but your mistake. The original intent of the patent system is proper documentation for the public. Instead it is used for hindering other upon improving existing ideas for decades. And lawsuits.
PS: Fedora is working excellent on laptops on desktops. While I prefer Arch personally, I do install Fedora on every computer of a "normal" person which is not within IT. It just works. Fedora is doing a good. But only if I add RPMFUSION first.
Fedora's foundations and technology are the best. I hate the RPMFusion situation, don't get me wrong, but it's the cleanest, most solid and best distro out there.
* Unity - Failed against GNOME and Gtk
* Mir - Failed against Wayland
* Upstart - Failed against Systemd
* Snap - Currently in fight against Flatpak
Keep in mind implementing ASICs need a way more time and a way more till broad support has reached customers. Systems with Sandy Bridge or even earlier (like ThinkPad X201) are working fine and being used. Long working reliable hardware is a good thing.
Streaming (select best codec) can adapt quicker than video-chat (common codec). And so called "Smart TVs" will not receive updates at all?
So, there are two possibilities for patent infringement:
1) AMD licensed a patent that allows them to write software that accesses hardware capabilities using software drivers. This is already ludicrous, but the US patent system is in play. Furthermore, the third party patent holder is asserting that AMD's license only applies to Windows drivers.
2) AMD's hardware violates a third party patent.
In both cases, this is AMD's problem, not the Linux distribution's. Also, no one is claiming either of the above things have happened.
(Not a lawyer, but this is basic IP law.)
(Background: I'm daily driving openSUSE tumbleweed and had to deal with it fairly recently)
[Ed.] Somewhat reminiscent of the crypto export restrictions around the millennium — with software patents being invalid in the EU (and a bunch of other jurisdictions), nothing would hinder the inclusion of these features in software distributed there...
[Ed. 2] Really reminiscent… it's only few jurisdictions where software patents are valid to a large degree - I found only the US, South Korea, and Armenia. Most other countries have significant hurdles or outright do not accept software patents.
I know the EU supposedly bans software patents, but looking at the patent pool for H.265, there's an awful lot of EU patents in there: https://www.mpegla.com/wp-content/uploads/hevc-att1.pdf.