Microsoft wins patent war over Open Source

Microsoft has struck a heavy blow in its fight against the Open Source software movement, when the US Patent and Trademark office approved its claim on the FAT file system. FAT, short for File Allocation Table, is a system used by Windows computers to store and index files in partitions of the hard disks. The latest Windows versions support FAT but uses NTFS as its recommended system. That will not however stop Microsoft in going against the OS movement, led by Linux.

Many Linux distributions contain code for supporting FAT, and this patent claim gives Microsoft legal muscle to force the removal of such code or demand royalty for licensing the technology. Microsoft has been serious attack from the movement, especially from Linux which has been touted as the operating system for the future. Linux, however, still remains a spot in the Microsoft dominated PC market, although it has made significant strides in the server business.