On Sun, Nov 17, 2002 at 02:17:24AM +0300, Paul Boettcher wrote:
> AC> On Sat, Nov 16, 2002 at 08:04:46PM +0300, Paul Boettcher wrote:
> >> Why somebody needs to develop his own NTFS driver instead of making
> >> the wrapper for standard NTFS driver taken from Windows NT/2000
> >> distribution package, just like "NTFS for Windows98" from Sysinternals?
>
> AC> (1) it probably isn't easier to do. It might be easy "to do", but
> AC> it would be very hard to "get right" and maintain (IMHO).
>
> May be it will be so, but what about NTFS for Win98? It doesn't need
> any maintenance except FAQ.
Win98 doesn't change. (The "change" is called XP) Linux does.
NTFS also changes. Do you propose supporting the drivers from all the
different versions of NT/XP?
> AC> (2) you would need a MS licence for each copy of GNU/Linux with NTFS
> AC> support.
> No, you are wrong. NTFS for Win98 doesn't need any license from
> Microsoft, because it is only a WRAPPER, and doesn't include any NTFS
> driver files. You have to unpack these files by yourself from YOUR
> [already licensed or stolen] Windows NT distribution package.
What I meant is: "users would need a MS licence".
The fact the users have to unpack these files "themselves" makes
it a PITA.
> AC> (3) MS would probably try to hijack any such effort.
> Really? Why it doesn't hijack "NTFS for Win98" from Sysinternals?
They aren't competing. We (GNU/Linux) are.
> AC> (4) it wouldn't be "free" in the GNU sense of the word.
> See (2).
That's irrelevant. Read www.gnu.org/philosophy if you don't know what
I mean by "the GNU sense of the word". We can't make different
implementation decisions, we would be tied to MS's way of doing things.
This is a loss of freedom. (You might not think this is important, but
some people do)
Eg: what if there's a security hole in an NTFS driver, and you can't
fix it?
> AC> Perhaps vmware + NT + file sharing would be a good interim
> AC> solution, if you don't like linux-ntfs.
> What is "vmware"?
Google it. It's a virtual machine thingy. Not free though :/
> AC> I'm not an NTFS developer
> Of course, you aren't because you aren't working at Microsoft, I think
> :-)
:P [I did get a mysterious invitation once though...]
> If you aren't developer of NTFS driver for Linux, well, it is very
> sad. I'm looking forward for developers' opinion.
I do hack on linux file system stuff, though :) If someone disagrees
with me (including linux-ntfs hackers), I hope they'll say so :)
Arguments should be independent of their authors, IMHO.
Andrew
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