When people think of Austin Meyer, they think of X-Plane.  Some hate him for simply inventing X-Plane.  Some just can't help insulting him or his work.  (I've seen people call him "Autism Meyer" and call X-Plane 12 "x-periment 12").  But here's a few things people don't know, because Austin is not one to advertise.

Patent trolls

Austin Meyer took on patent trolls...and won.  Patent trolling was an easy way to make money.  Spend millions fighting the patent trolls, and risk losing, or settle out of court for $300 000.  Austin took the riskier option.  He took on the patent trolls, in the patent troll capital of the US (Texas) and won.  This affects developers more than people realize.  Indie developers were sent bankrupt because of patent trolls.  People who came up with very useful, innovative software.  They would settle out of court, lose everything, quit making software and go back to 9-5 employment.  

The number of patent troll victims is too numerous to list here, but here are some of primary ones in the US alone.

Google

Verizon

Apple

Samsung

Dell

Sony

Blackberry

Amazon

In 2015, Apple was forced to pay $532 million to a patent troll.

Source: https://legalvision.com.au/26707/

How does this affect the general consumer?

Settling out of court costs money.  Going to court and losing costs money.  These companies need to recoup those costs.  How?  They charge the public more for their products.  

Because of Austin fighting this in court, with his own money, it set a precedent for other software developers, major corporations as well as indie developers, to have their work protected.

That was in 2012, and it was the first time a software developer took on patent trolls, and won.  Prior to this, as I said, software developers, and anyone else accused of stealing patents, simply settled out of court and most of them lost everything and went broke.

Because of this precedent, set by Austin Meyer, even Microsoft took steps to protect itself, and other developers against patent trolling by designing the Azure (Sound familiar?) IP Advantage program.  There is also a not for profit community called The LOT Network, that was designed to fight patent trolls.  I can't stress it enough, some of the software and hardware we have now, was at risk of either being priced much higher, or being discontinued, if it weren't for Austin taking on patent trolls.  And it's unfortunate people don't even know how serious this could have gotten.

 

 

Another example of Austin not advertising his generosity.  He spent over $1 million of his own money, through the Ava Lane Meyer Foundation (Yes, his foundation), on 4 electric school buses and donated them to 4 schools in the Greenville County area.

(Video at the bottom of this post.)

And just to add to this, there was a video I came across a while ago, of Steve Harvey, who makes an excellent point about people with money.  I won't say it here.  Just watch it for yourselves.  (It's time stamped).  Think about what Steve Harvey says and you'll understand exactly why I posted it here.

 

He has also made contributions to ProTerra and Beta Technologies.  

 

Austin Meyer stopped an aircraft project to donate $1.5 million of his own money for a no-kill animal shelter.

Sources:  https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/austin-is-the-man.294087/

https://www.live5news.com/story/12974207/sc-couple-gives-15-million-for-no-kill-animal-shelter/

https://www.chronicle-independent.com/news/kershaw-county/new-animal-adoption-center-almost-ready/

As is mentioned in the 2nd link:

"Austin Meyers says he'd planned to use the money to build a faster airplane. But a spur-of-the-moment visit to Columbia's animal shelter as the couple headed to the beach changed his mind."

I think I'll stop it here.  

So maybe if some people take all this into consideration, hopefully they'll stop posting comments like "Austin worshippers" or "Austin Pariah's" or "X-Plane cultists", etc...

Maybe we just admire and respect what the man has done.  Even indirectly (taking on patent trolls) for Microsoft Flight Sim and Asobo.

 

 

Edited January 20, 20233 yr by GoranM

Just a good man for sure, we need a bunch more!

Just to add regarding patents, Austin actually released a documentary about it called "The Patent Scam": 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6567002/

I think it's on Amazon Prime at the moment. It's worth a watch, as it shows just how corrupt and messed up the system is and how these criminals took on the wrong guy when they decided to go for Laminar Research 

https://austinmeyer.com/

Definitely a fascinating individual.  As with most on this level of visionary their brains just operate differently than ours.

I know he is also a film maker and entrepreneur as well.  Not that makes a difference because it's as important about what you do with it once you've got it as it is sometimes how you got it but is he self made?  What I mean by that is I know quite a few billionaires whose money came from family however what they have done with it since they got it is nothing short of incredible.  So I don't judge where the money came from (as long as it was legal LOL) but what you do with it and how you handle your wealth... 

He is impressive regardless of what you think of him...  Lot's of successful,  good people out there that someone doesn't like for one reason or another...

 

Whether one loves X-Plane or hates it, I've never understood why that would turn into personal attacks on Austin or anyone else on the Laminar team. It certainly won't convince anyone else to change their mind about the sim.

Thanks @GoranM for posting a little bit of Austin's philanthropy. Perhaps it'll give people some perspective and help reduce some of the vitriol we see every day.

I dare to dream.

6 minutes ago, psolk said:

https://austinmeyer.com/

Definitely a fascinating individual.  As with most on this level of visionary their brains just operate differently than ours.

I know he is also a film maker and entrepreneur as well.  Not that makes a difference because it's as important about what you do with it once you've got it as it is sometimes how you got it but is he self made?  What I mean by that is I know quite a few billionaires whose money came from family however what they have done with it since they got it is nothing short of incredible.  So I don't judge where the money came from (as long as it was legal LOL) but what you do with it and how you handle your wealth... 

He is impressive regardless of what you think of him...  Lot's of successful,  good people out there that someone doesn't like for one reason or another...

 

Oh he is definitely self made.  He graduated college as an engineer and worked for some aeronautics company (for the life of me, I can't remember which one, but it was a big one that is still around today).  He tried the first version of MSFS back in the 80's when it was on a Mac, but he didn't like it, so he made his own.  X-Plane.  With 1 aircraft.  A Piper Archer.  I actually think he called Piper Archer Simulator.  But it was only for himself.  He continued with his engineering job.  After several updates, his friends saw what he made and they asked if they could have a copy.  He handed them out to whoever asked.  Some of his friends told him he should actually sell it as a new business venture.  I think X-Plane 4 was the first commercial version of X-Plane, and was commercially titled X-Plane 1.  Since then, it's gone from strength to strength.

Edited January 20, 20233 yr by GoranM

15 minutes ago, tonywob said:

Just to add regarding patents, Austin actually released a documentary about it called "The Patent Scam": 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6567002/

I think it's on Amazon Prime at the moment. It's worth a watch, as it shows just how corrupt and messed up the system is and how these criminals took on the wrong guy when they decided to go for Laminar Research 

I think it was in that documentary that Austin says he was told, by his lawyers, the court case could cost between $3 million and $5 million.  And he STILL went ahead with it, knowing it could affect his future, his companies future and even his daughters future.  Purely because patent trolling is wrong.  Who risks the future of their company and family on morals??  Am I an X-Plane cultist?  Absolutely!!  Proud to say it!

And I just came across this in one of the links on the animal shelter, underneath the photo:

 

Meyer is matching donations, dollar-for-dollar, up to $1 million.

It doesn't mention how much extra he donated, but to think he was willing to put up an extra $1 million, on top of his original $1.5 million, is staggering.

Thanks for posting, I didn't know anything about Austin, except for XP and that he owns (or used to own) a Cirrus.

Most importantly: He doesn't take himself too seriously.

He's kind of a modern small-scale Howard Hughes to me. (During Hughes' heyday, that is, not during his later life.)

Edited January 20, 20233 yr by Bjoern

I'm so grateful to Austin for continuing developing my all times favorite flightsim. Thank you, sir!

Jos

Edited January 20, 20233 yr by beep747

I had the pleasure of meeting him a few years ago. He's as eccentric in person as he is on video 

I heard few times that he's a good chap, nice to talk to. That is enough for me, as people that are not open to any random chill conversation, are not worth your attention.

Edited January 20, 20233 yr by Pe11e

The fact that he personally responds to customer emails (most times, maybe not 100% of them) also says quite a bit about what he considers important.

@GoranM Good stuff! Yes, I’ve seen all the patent video stuff. Nice to see the honest side of the story win with good reason. He has always responded to my e-mails in the past. High energy brain for sure to design your own flight simulator platform from scratch! I think if people knew individuals better there would be far less personal attacks. The vast majority of individuals are meant to be good at heart. It just takes the right understanding.