Jul. 3, 2009 (8:33 am) By: Rick Hodgin Score one for Linux developers. Andrew Tridgell, one of the lead developers on the Samba project, may have developed a workaround which will bypass a Microsoft patent on the ubiquitous FAT, VFAT and FAT32 file systems. For those who don’t know, Linux comes with an Ext2, Ext3 or new Ext4 file system for its native use. This is a long-held requirement because some time ago, Microsoft developed the FAT, VFAT and FAT32 file systems (File Allocation Table, with 32-bit support for larger disks), which allows a disk to store its data. Note: This is a low-level aspect of the system (one not really seen by users), but it’s what physically holds the data that we see as filenames, dates, attributes and folders, such as through Windows Explorer. Microsoft had an often questioned patent issued on its... [read full story]
