Ouch!
Ian Malone
ibm21 at cam.ac.uk
Wed Jan 11 23:09:53 UTC 2006
Tim wrote:
> On Wed, 2006-01-11 at 22:24 +0000, Ian Malone wrote:
>>> Alternatively they could just revert to 8.3 support for files, it
>>> wouldn't affect usb key applications as windows is handling the file
>>> system then (but it's a blow to interoperability, USB keys wouldn't
>>> work between Win and Mac or Linux).
>
>
> They're just a storage medium, so they use what's put on them. It's
> up to the computers using them as to how. We don't have "FAT" hard
> drives, CDs, etc. We simply have drive and discs.
Yes, what I mean is that usb key manufacturers don't need to worry about
licensing, but if you can't use FAT on Mac or Linux then a FAT formatted
key created in Windows is not going to work on them. (It'll be
interesting to see Apple's response, but I suppose they'll just pay
the fee in the end)
> So I don't see the further encumbering of FAT making it impossible to
> use thumbdrives in particular.
It might make them less useful. Say my Linux box doesn't support FAT
so I format my pen drive to use ext2 and install ext2 drivers on the
Windows machines I use. I now have the problem that if I need to use
an unknown (almost certainly Win) computer for a presentation I have to
either have another pen drive or use a (friendly) Windows machine to
reformat my current pendrive (which isn't great for them apparently)
and put the data back on.
--
imalone
More information about the fedora-list
mailing list