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.
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.
jfred | 3 hours ago
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.
patryk | 2 hours ago
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
pzel | 2 hours ago
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.
tad | 2 hours ago
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.
never_released | 28 minutes ago
Thunderbolt/USB4 work for having multiple displays out of a single cable on Mac but those tend to be more expensive
mjec | an hour ago
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.
mort | an hour ago
Is there any reason at all for displays to use DisplayLink instead of just normal DP alt mode?
valpackett | an hour ago
Not everyone has enough DP outputs available for the number of displays they would like to run! (hello Apple)