On Thu, 4 Dec 2003, Fred N. van Kempen wrote:
> To my own laughter and surprise, Microsoft now claims to have the
> rights to the FAT file system, and intends to execute on a licensing
> program for it, with obvious results.
>
> Wasnt FAT done (in crude format) by MP/M or CP/M86 already *before*
> Microsoft? They claim it was developed by them in 1976, but I seem
> to recall it being mentioned before that, around 1974-ish or so,
> by homebrew people (such as CP/M et al.) ??
>
> --f (who runs FAT on his own PDP-11 OS ;-)
It's a total joke. First of all, the patents referenced on their FAT
licensing website:
http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/ip/tech/fat.asp
...are for long filenames. They have no patent on FAT, and for good
reasons: 1) software patents were not allowed at the time that FAT was
implemented in MS-DOS, and 2) FAT was basically lifted from another OS.
I have no idea why MS would be so stupid as to think people are going to
fall for this, which is basically a sad-assed ruse. Also, I highly
question the history they are promulgating. They claim they developed FAT
in 1976. That seems a bit early. I could be wrong.
Damn losers.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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Received on Thu Dec 04 2003 - 13:14:23 GMT