FAT is a variation on the old CP/M file system, which was, iirc, like it's design, taken from Posix. (A subset of an older Unix.)
It is unique and enforcing a patent is not a bad thing. Just a few years ago IBM did the same thing regarding the ISA bus and got Compaq, et. al., to shell out. As much as I have no respect for M$ ... This is, on the surface, just good business. What's going to be more significant is how this license works out. Will it be exclusive, like their old licenses for Office/Windows where you must use their format and nobody else's, resulting in a trade restriction? This also has the net effect of entrenching M$ as the standard in a new, blossoming marketplace. A place where no M$ OS yet exists. (At least not in the cameras, but definitely in the PDA world.) Certainly the FTC is looking @ it with a microscope as we chat. CRB
