Posts by Mark Quinsey

French pass 'three strikes' file-sharing law

Parallel

So if I go to the library, and photocopy a book, I should be banned from the library, have my newspapers and magazines stopped, my phone cut off and my mail held at the post office...

...my photo albums shredded, my work binned, my contacts and friends lost, and presumably to rub salty shit in the wound, some sort of draconian tracking arrangement to make sure I don't try to infringe again for the duration of the ban?

On the other hand I could pay a couple of hundred quid for the indiscretion of caving somebody's head in.

Shoplifting CDs anyone?

Linux chief calls for FAT-free Microsoft diet

@nobby

There is already an Ext2/3 driver for windows. Ext4 isn't seeing deployment yet (partly due to squeamishness over the way it writes, ie. rarely), but in my understanding existing drivers for Windows would be able to support the subset of 4s features that match Ext3 (Ext has legacy support).

The real question is why are Microsoft getting away with the blatantly anticompetitive practice of stifling choice in the file system market? It would be almost trivial for Redmond to port a range of drivers to Windows which would improve network integration with UNIX systems... but then that's just the point isn't it?