All Things Microsoft > Microsoft as a Company
EU state rules - Microsoft CAN own patent for FAT long filenames!
Lead Head:
Play nicely now guys.
I don't know why most USB drives are formatted with FAT - even straight from the factory. Guess its because windows doesn't support much else, and NTFS support is iffy on other platforms.
Calum:
historical reasons. VFAT is the de facto standard, just like microsoft wanted.
It's actually the same setup as a protection racket, and microsoft have been doing it since 1975 with all sorts of technology. They basically tell everybody they're screwed if they don't conform to microsoft's rules (which is true because most people fall for it and anybody who doesn't gets left out in the cold by the market) and then they go round shortly afterwards forcing protection money out of you for playing by microsoft's rules. A classic one-two punch combination.
And yes, software patents really suck, because they stifle true innovation, which is exactly what microsoft wants to happen. if the information technology economy starts being more based on innovation and less on marketing, microsoft will be in real trouble. software patents are a godssend for them.
Kintaro:
No innovation? That is funny because Windows is the system with all the innovation. MacOSX and Linux stay almost exactly the same, my debian desktop looks the same as always and it has its charm.
Personally if Microsoft didn't need to hold defensive patents against faggots like Red-Hat, Novell, IBM, Oracle, Apple, and so on and vise-versa a lot less of the market capitalization would be spent on bullshit intellectual property lawyers a lot more innovation could be done. Yet Microsoft is the only software company that still does innovate, Microsoft are the ones who developed technology so solid-state disks and hard drives can both be used at once for the files that run faster on each. Microsoft are the ones that have the largest and most powerful API, and by far the easiest SDK.
The real worry is that intellectual property leaves a monopoly now for big companies. Smaller software development outfits are severely limited by these coercive intrusions into their business. Not every man with an idea has access to a farm of lawyers. The real criminal here is the Governments that keep a body that was invented by an insane English tyrant King which has no economic sense at all. Get rid of patents, Microsoft is fine, apart from the Blue Screens of Death that everyone with x64 has... and that is what we are talking about, not Microsofts legal necessities.
Microsoft don't need patents, they can buy anyone they want, unless Larry Ellison at Oracle beat them to it. The fact is patents stifle competition and market forces and the computer world is at the whims of every insane patent officer.
You know what I think? I don't think you even know what you are talking about, and add nothing of value to this forum.
Calum:
--- Quote from: Basil Fawlty on 29 April 2010, 16:18 ---No innovation? That is funny because Windows is the system with all the innovation. MacOSX and Linux stay almost exactly the same, my debian desktop looks the same as always and it has its charm.
--- End quote ---
that's reasonable. i think judging an OS by how your desktop looks is a sound policy.
--- Quote ---Personally if Microsoft didn't need to hold defensive patents against faggots like Red-Hat, Novell, IBM, Oracle, Apple, and so on and vise-versa a lot less of the market capitalization would be spent on bullshit intellectual property lawyers a lot more innovation could be done. Yet Microsoft is the only software company that still does innovate, Microsoft are the ones who developed technology so solid-state disks and hard drives can both be used at once for the files that run faster on each. Microsoft are the ones that have the largest and most powerful API, and by far the easiest SDK.
--- End quote ---
it's an opinion.
--- Quote ---The real worry is that intellectual property leaves a monopoly now for big companies. Smaller software development outfits are severely limited by these coercive intrusions into their business. Not every man with an idea has access to a farm of lawyers. The real criminal here is the Governments that keep a body that was invented by an insane English tyrant King which has no economic sense at all. Get rid of patents, Microsoft is fine, apart from the Blue Screens of Death that everyone with x64 has... and that is what we are talking about, not Microsofts legal necessities.
--- End quote ---
actually i think you make a lot of sense here in all seriousness.
--- Quote ---Microsoft don't need patents, they can buy anyone they want, unless Larry Ellison at Oracle beat them to it. The fact is patents stifle competition and market forces and the computer world is at the whims of every insane patent officer.
--- End quote ---
i know you like to know when i agree with you, i'm pretty much in agreement here.
--- Quote ---You know what I think? I don't think you even know what you are talking about, and add nothing of value to this forum.
--- End quote ---
oh! and it was going so well. Well, we'll let the audience decide shall we?
Aloone_Jonez:
VFAT is a good system, in that it's simple, easy to implement and in wide use.
This patten still means that everyone will be able to use VFAT, it only affects long file names used by Windows: you can still use short 8.3 file names used by Windows 3.1 and DOS.
I don't know if this patent just covers the MS system, could you invent your own long file name system which is not compatible with Windows and use it instead?
If so, it will just make things harder, although not impossible. If compatibility with Windows is an issue you could write your own driver which will enable Windows to use your own long file name standard.
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