[colug-432] CYGWIN and NTFS

[Jeff Stebelton]

Interesting. Thanks.
On Feb 1, 2014 7:26 PM, "Rick Troth" <rmt at casita.net> wrote:

> On 02/01/2014 02:45 PM, Jeff Stebelton wrote:
> >
> > What is the Microsoft tax?
> >
>
> Microsoft acquired the FAT filesystem when it got QDOS which became
> MS-DOS. Presumably they added directory/hierarchy capability themselves
> (for MS-DOS 2.x and beyond). Then when long filenames became vogue, they
> invented VFAT, which is a clever way of leveraging the underlying "File
> Allocation Table" mechanism to hold the fancier names. They were granted
> patents for VFAT which they have successfully used against
> Google/Android. As I recall, they also went against TomTom. (I don't pay
> as much attention to these things as I should.)
>
> The "tax" is patent revenue demanded by the patent holder (Microsoft)
> for use of their invention. Not likely they have much case against you
> or me ... but I'm not a lawyer. It's annoying at least.
>
> -- R; <><
>
>
>
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