[syslinux] Interest in NTFS

[Gilles Espinasse]

Selon Andreas Kotes <count-linux at flatline.de>:

> Hello,
>
> * Andreas Kotes <count-linux at flatline.de> [20080603 10:46]:
> > * H. Peter Anvin <hpa at zytor.com> [20080602 22:55]:
> > > Andreas Kotes wrote:
> > > > I think VFAT long filenames are more worthwhile ...
> > >
> > > I think this is probably the right sequence of priorities.
> > >
> > > The biggest issue with VFAT long file names -- and I suspect NTFS has
> > > the same thing -- is that they use Unicode (UTF-16) filenames, and
> > > case-insensitive to boot, which are hard to handle correctly in a pre-OS
> > > environment.
> >
> > Oy - I thought the patent issues where the biggest problem?
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#FAT_licensing .. we
> > in Europe don't necessarily need to care, but it may be a different
> > matter in the US?
>
> Just read up a bit more on it - I think syslinux can ignore them for the
> same reason Linux does - interoperability.
>
> I Am Not A Lawyer, and this can of course only be decided in court by a
> judge - so it could be good to be aware of this problem.
>
Most importantly is that shamelessly Windows pretend any partition format not
know are not formatted and need to be.
This should be more than incentive for a vendor to select (V)FAT than anything
else.

Plug an usb key with ext2/3 on a windows machine.
How many users will know Windows is wrong and select cancel on the format
proposal?

Gilles