Synaptics patent claims stop work on DisplayLink drivers
19 points by calvin
19 points by calvin
The fact that DisplayLink is proprietary is precisely why I've always avoided docks that use it. USB-C compatibility is messy enough as it is; I really don't need to throw proprietary drivers into that mix.
DisplayPort Alt-Mode is an open standard and is great in my experience, so long as you make sure the devices and cables you buy support it.
welcome to the apple-land, where they've decided to not support DP MST and you're out of luck if you want to connect 2 monitors with a single USB-c unless you've got... DisplayLink dock
For quite a long while, DisplayLinked monitors on mac os wouldn't respect Night Shift. That was fixed sometime after 2022, but in general the whole DisplayLink ecosystem keeps on giving off seedy rent-seeking vibes.
I'm not surprised about the C&D letter, but it is highly ironic. A good open source driver would help this company with adoption of their hardware, not hinder it.
Given the architecture (reminds me of the Winmodem stuff back in the day) it might ultimately behoove Linux users to kill support for this protocol.
Thunderbolt/USB4 work for having multiple displays out of a single cable on Mac but those tend to be more expensive
Demanding "monetary compensation from you in the amount of US$25,000 to recoup the costs and effort required to create the attached documentation of your infringing acts" is some serious bullshit. This is not recoupable absent a court order for costs indemnity (relatively rare), and asking the sender of a C&D to identify which of the 125 patents you're infringing is not just reasonable, but expected.
Is there any reason at all for displays to use DisplayLink instead of just normal DP alt mode?
Not everyone has enough DP outputs available for the number of displays they would like to run! (hello Apple)