Microsoft readies exFAT patents for Linux and open source

[steven36]

For years, Microsoft has profited from its FAT file system patents. Now the company is making it explicit that it's freeing its remaining exFAT patents for Open Invention Network members.

 

 

For years, Microsoft used its patents as a way to profit from open-source products. The poster-child for Microsoft's intellectual property aggression were the File Allocation Table (FAT) patents. But the Microsoft of then is not the Microsoft of now. First, Microsoft open-sourced 60,000 patents of its patent portfolio and now Microsoft is explicitly making its last remaining FAT intellectual property, the exFAT patents, available to Linux and open source via the Open Invention Network (OIN).

 

Microsoft announced that it now loves Linux and "we say that a lot, and we mean it!  Today we're pleased to announce that Microsoft is supporting the addition of Microsoft's exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table) technology to the Linux kernel."

 

ExFAT is based on FAT, one of the first floppy disk file systems. Over time, FAT became Microsoft's files ystem of choice for MS-DOS and Windows. It would become the default file system for many applications. Microsoft extended FAT to flash memory storage devices such as USB drives and SD cards in 2006 with exFAT. While FAT isn't commonly used today, exFAT is used in hundreds of millions of storage device. Indeed, exFAT is the official file system for SD Card Association's standard large capacity SD cards.

 

Now, Microsoft states:

It's important to us that the Linux community can make use of exFAT included in the Linux kernel with confidence. To this end, we will be making Microsoft's technical specification for exFAT publicly available to facilitate the development of conformant, interoperable implementations. We also support the eventual inclusion of a Linux kernel with exFAT support in a future revision of the Open Invention Network's Linux System Definition, where, once accepted, the code will benefit from the defensive patent commitments of OIN's 3040+ members and licensees.

Specifically, according to a Microsoft representative, "Microsoft is supporting the addition of the exFAT file system to the Linux kernel and the eventual inclusion of a Linux kernel with exFAT support in a future revision of the Open Invention Network's Linux System Definition."

 

When Microsoft first started loosening its grip on Linux-related patents, Bradley Kuhn, president of the Software Freedom Conservancy, asked for "Microsoft, as a sign of good faith and to confirm its intention to end all patent aggression against Linux and its users, to now submit to upstream the exfat code themselves under GPLv2-or-late."

 

Microsoft isn't doing that. Instead, said a Microsoft representative, "We are supporting the inclusion of exFAT in the Linux kernel and to facilitate that, we are making Microsoft's technical specification for exFAT publicly available.  We will also support the eventual inclusion of a Linux kernel with exFAT support in a future revision of the OIN's Linux System Definition." But while "we are supporting the inclusion of exFAT in the Linux kernel, the code submission is being performed by other members of the community."

 

 

The Microsoft speaker added the company has "no on-going patent litigation involving exFAT."

 

Why is Microsoft doing this considering over the years it's made tens of millions from its FAT patents? Stephen Walli, Microsoft's principal program manager for Azure, explained at Open Source Summit Europe last year that "Open source changed everything. Customers have changed. Fifteen years ago, a CIO would have said, 'we have no open source, they would have been wrong, but that's what they thought.' Now, CIOs know open source's essential … Microsoft has always been a company by, of, and for developers. At this point in history, developers love open source."

 

Keith Bergelt, OIN's CEO, welcomed this news. "We're happy and heartened to see that Microsoft is continuing to support software freedom. They are giving up the patent levers to create revenue at the expense of the community. This is another step of Microsoft's transformation in showing it's truly committed to Linux and open source."

 

When the next edition of the Linux System Definition is released in the first quarter of 2020, any member of the OIN will be able to use exFAT without paying a patent royalty. Bergelt noted that membership in the open-source patent protection consortium is free for any company willing to share its patents with others. However, a company need not have patents to join the OIN. 

 

Source

[steven36]

Must Read: Microsoft is Bringing exFAT to the Linux Kernel (And No-One’s Getting Sued)

 

 

Microsoft has announced that it’s bringing exFAT support to the Linux kernel, with code contributed licensed under GPLv2.

 

This is huge, unexpected, yet very welcome #opensource news.

 

Microsoft’s exFAT file system is prevalent throughout a lot of modern technology, regardless of whether you (or your device) use the Windows operating system.

 

This simple, but proprietary and patented file system was created by Microsoft for use, primarily, in ‘flash’ memory products back in 2006.

 

Since then the format has seen colossal adoption throughout the electronics industry, with USB drives, SD cards, digital cameras, and MP3 players among the many, many devices that make use of it.

 

All for a fee, of course.

Unencumbered exFAT in Linux

Now, you’re probably thinking: “Joey dude, my SD cards and USB sticks all work fine in Linux!”.

 

And you know what: you’re not wrong.

 

It’s long been possible to read, write, manage, edit, resize, and format exFAT partitions and file systems on Linux distros like Ubuntu.

 

And that’s solely down to stellar open source efforts like the FUSE-based exFAT.

 

But patent issues have prevented these ‘workaround’ solutions from shipping as part of the regular Linux kernel, out of the box, ready to go.

 

Today that changes.

 

Microsoft engineer John Gossman, in a post on the Microsoft open source blog, has announced that “Microsoft is supporting the addition of Microsoft’s exFAT technology to the Linux kernel.”

 

This is huge news because it means, for the first time, the Linux kernel can include exFAT support “with confidence”, Microsoft say — i.e., no-one is gonna get sued; not kernel devs, not distros shipping patches that enable to exFAT, not anyone.

 

Microsoft has even made a technical specification for exFAT publicly available. This, it says, this will help developers create “conformant, interoperable implementations” of exFAT within the Linux kernel.

 

It’s hoped Linux exFAT support will filter down into the Open Invention Network’s Linux System Definition. There, Gossman says, ‘the code will benefit from the defensive patent commitments of OIN’s 3040+ members and licensees’.

 

Source