On Thursday 12 January 2006 11:02, Richard Morgan wrote:
> This has really cast a dark cloud over the Open Source community and shows
> how a company like Microsoft can stifle the marketplace by restricting the
> use of FAT (especially with such a widespread technology). I don't
> understand how Microsoft could possibly get a patent for something that has
> been used for the last 20 years by the whole computer industry. IANAL.
FAT is easily enough replaced, but as you said many are already using it.
> I know that my digital camera and PDA uses FAT for the flash storage
> devices which I also use with Linux and I'm concerned with Microsoft using
> this patent to prevent this HUGE market from being used with Linux.
I would imagine a good number of lawyers are very busy looking to see what can
be done. Of course we don't know if MS is going to play nice or not...
> Anyway, I downloaded ext2 drivers for my Windows machines last night...
Yikes! I did not know they had ext2 drivers for windows. To bad. Opens the
door for a dual boot machines to hack the linux partition. It used to be
limited to the boot sector, which is bad enough.
--Steve Szmidt
"For evil to triumph all that is needed is for good men to do nothing. Edmund Burke ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
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