2004-10-01

Microsoft Vows Fight on Patent Rejection

Microsoft Vows Fight on Patent Rejection



I have two digital music systems that can read the FAT file system format and play music. Neither one implements the file system correctly. You can't just format the MMC or SmartMedia or whatever card on your PC and expect it to work correctly in the playback device. (Neither one likes FAT32, which is even more unfortunate.)



I was wondering why it's okay for a floppy disk to be formatted with the FAT file system, but not these digital media cards.



I guess the answer is that you generally use a PC running Windows or DOS to access the floppy disk, whereas the digital device has to implement the file system on a non-PC device. So the implementations are knock-offs and not fully correct. I used to think it was just bad programming but now I wonder if it is to get around this bizarre FAT file system patent.



If anyone knows, leave a comment!

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