Apple has a patent on the Dock.
https://www.google.com/patents/US7434177
And clickable pull-down menus in the menu bar. https://www.google.com/patents/USD629412
The legal system strikes again.
Etoile: a GNUStep-based Linux GUI written in Objective-C
11–20 of 46 posts
Re: Etoile: a GNUStep-based Linux GUI written in Objective-C
#12It says 'PDA' in the first paragraph. That makes it looks old
It is old. The page is copyright 2010, and the last news post was mid 2012.
I remember trying to install and run this 2 years ago. I checked up on it from time to time, but since it seemed dead I stopped following it(although there seems to be code edit that was an hour ago[1]).
Re: Etoile: a GNUStep-based Linux GUI written in Objective-C
#13Apple has a patent on the Dock. https://www.google.com/patents/US7434177 And clickable pull-down menus in the menu bar. https://www.google.com/patents/USD629412 The legal system strikes again.
Wow, I was surprised to see that Apple has patents on those, especially the one on pull-down menus. Wasn't pull-down menus there in some old Xerox computer?
Re: Etoile: a GNUStep-based Linux GUI written in Objective-C
#14Apple has a patent on the Dock. https://www.google.com/patents/US7434177 And clickable pull-down menus in the menu bar. https://www.google.com/patents/USD629412 The legal system strikes again.
Ubuntu has a dock-like-launcher and pull-downs in the menu bar. Interesting.
Re: Etoile: a GNUStep-based Linux GUI written in Objective-C
#15Apple has a patent on the Dock. https://www.google.com/patents/US7434177 And clickable pull-down menus in the menu bar. https://www.google.com/patents/USD629412 The legal system strikes again.
Wow, I was surprised to see that Apple has patents on those, especially the one on pull-down menus. Wasn't pull-down menus there in some old Xerox computer?
Pull-downs are entirely Apple's:
http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=On_Xerox,_Apple_and_P...
and
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Busy_Being_Born.t...
Re: Etoile: a GNUStep-based Linux GUI written in Objective-C
#16Apple has a patent on the Dock. https://www.google.com/patents/US7434177 And clickable pull-down menus in the menu bar. https://www.google.com/patents/USD629412 The legal system strikes again.
The menu patent is for translucent menus "large, lower rectangle that conveys the impression of a translucent/transparent surface"
Re: Etoile: a GNUStep-based Linux GUI written in Objective-C
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow, I was surprised to see that Apple has patents on those, especially the one on pull-down menus. Wasn't pull-down menus there in some old Xerox computer?
Pull-downs are entirely Apple's: http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=On_Xerox,_Apple_and_P... and http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Busy_Being_Born.t...
That's interesting, IIRC pull-downs were used in GEM and Amiga Workbench too...
Re: Etoile: a GNUStep-based Linux GUI written in Objective-C
#18Apple has a patent on the Dock. https://www.google.com/patents/US7434177 And clickable pull-down menus in the menu bar. https://www.google.com/patents/USD629412 The legal system strikes again.
I am not a patent lawyer, but the second patent appears to be for an interface where windows can situationally be rendered translucent, not for the general idea of pull-down menus.
Re: Etoile: a GNUStep-based Linux GUI written in Objective-C
#19Apple has a patent on the Dock. https://www.google.com/patents/US7434177 And clickable pull-down menus in the menu bar. https://www.google.com/patents/USD629412 The legal system strikes again.
So that affects how the project is hosted, big whoop. Another "amazing" property of platforms without a gatekeeper!
(PS- pretending the lawlers' games are important just serves to propagate their influence)
Re: Etoile: a GNUStep-based Linux GUI written in Objective-C
#20Apple has a patent on the Dock. https://www.google.com/patents/US7434177 And clickable pull-down menus in the menu bar. https://www.google.com/patents/USD629412 The legal system strikes again.
The Dock patent is specifically on the dynamic resizing and repositioning of icons when moused over. A plain collection of icons won't infringe this patent.
The second patent is a design patent, which means you'd have to have a menu exactly like that to infringe.
Funnily enough, one of the icons in the figures in the first patent is for Internet Explorer. I think I also spied one for Word.