They are here! M$ and a new trick!

[CodeSmith]

Microsoft rarely does anything without a good reason.  I can think of two possibilities, there's probably more:

1) The slip in the launch date for Longhorn is causing the Windows group trouble meeting internal profit quotas - this will easily solve that.
2) Yet another dig at Linux - distros probably won't be able to have the "fat" filesystem driver any more, this will cripple interop between Linux and Windows and make it harder for people to switch.  It's quite machiavellian actually - distros that pay Microsoft the driver license fee will be condemned for being in bed with them, distros that don't will only be able to r/w Linux formatted disks.

[CodeSmith]

Um... Can't we cleanroom a compatible Fat12 FS?

In an open source project it's going to be pretty hard to prove "cleanroom", if MS decides to sue someone.  Besides, one of the articles said that CF manufacturers have to pay a fee for each preformatted card, that means that it's the raw format that is being licensed, not the filesystem's algorithms.

[CodeSmith]

Hmm, so surely all they have to do is provide the flash memory unformatted, leaving formatting as an exercise to the user? I assume these are just like floppy disks (which incidentally also tend to come pre-formatted with FAT FS), and don't care what format they have - so on an Amiga you could format them with FFS.

I don't think you're grasping all the implications of the raw format being licensed.  That means that it's impossible to write a non-infringing FAT filesystem, because regardless of how it's written, the bits on the disk (ie what is being licensed) must be the same, otherwise it's not a FAT disk.  This affects the amiga because if one does not pay the license, then the only way to share files with a PC is a network of some kind, or a writable CD.

That said, I'd gladly pay an extra quarter for OS4 if it means I won't have to worry about this.  People like Hyperion and Genesi aren't going to be hugely affected, especially if the license is a once-only, per-copy fee for the driver.  The ones who are royally screwed are the ones writing open-source filesystems (eg the AROS crew).

[CodeSmith]

@Waccoon:

Who says they haven't? Putting a ROM chip on the AmigaOne instead of an EEPROM for copy protection purposes is sinking pretty low as it is, and OS4 will probably be cracked from day 1, anyway.

I would say that protecting themselves from pirates in a way that is 100% transparent to legit users is not "sinking" to any level.  What level are you sinking to when you lock the door to your house?  those poor burglars have starving kids too, you know.

If you're suggesting that the pirate protection is to keep Pegasos users from using AmigaOS4, well you can thank Bill Buck for choosing the nastiest dongle ever: the Marvell Discovery chipset, which is 100% incompatible with the Articia S, the only PPC chipset that AmigaOS4 knows how to talk to.  If someone can demo a working copy of OS4 on a Pegasos 2, I will be very impressed indeed.