OSDev.org

Well Microsoft patented fat(which is stupid) so now what do we do to communicate with a Microsoft OS through floppies, natively
didnt they also patent ntfs(even though thats not for floppies)

so did microsoft ever think that they might be hurting themselves considering a situation like this:
(1 is using linux 2 is using microsoft)
1:"hey i wrote a story, its on this floppy"
2:"oh great"
1:"you do have an ext driver right?"
2:"of course not why?"
1:well the floppies in ext. heres a copy of redhat linux 9. just install it"
2:"oh ok"
*takes it home and installs it
2:"wow redhat luinux is cool. It includes games and cool stuff"
1:"yea I know, so how was the story"
2:"oh, i never got around to reading it, i was having fun with the games on it"
1:"oh"
and well then microsoft burns, bill gates dies and windows xp has a very deadly flaw found so that noone buys it

1:"hey i wrote a story, its on this floppy"
2:"oh great"
1:"you do have an ext driver right?"
2:"of course not why?"
1:well the floppies in ext. heres a copy of redhat linux 9. just install it"
2:"oh ok"
*takes it home and installs it
2:"wow redhat luinux is cool. It includes games and cool stuff"
1:"yea I know, so how was the story"
2:"oh, i never got around to reading it, i was having fun with the games on it"
1:"oh"

It'll go this way:

1:"hey i wrote a story, its on this floppy"
2:"oh great"
1:"you do have an ext driver right?"
2:"of course not why?"
1:well the floppies in ext. heres a copy of redhat linux 9. just install it"
2:"no send me an e-mail"

and well then microsoft burns, bill gates dies and windows xp has a very deadly flaw found so that noone buys it

It won't happen in near future.

Just do not use LFN and your OK.

More plausible

Jordan3 wrote: 1:"hey i wrote a story, its on this floppy"
2:"oh great"
1:"you do have an ext driver right?"
2:" a ... what ??"
1:"nevermind. you got an e-mail ?"

or ...

*takes it home and installs it
2:"wow redhat luinux is cool. It includes games and cool stuff"
1:"yea I know, so how was the story"
2:"well, i couldn't print it, sorry ..."

Pype.Clicker: how true.

Is it possible to install an alternative floppy disk file system driver in Windows? If not, then does any software exist that has an explorer-like interface, and can write to a floppy disk image in a different file system (e.g. ext2)?

There is both. There are FS-Browser applications for ext2/3, reiserfs and probably some more. As for the filesystem driver, the only one I know is an ext2 driver, which works pretty stable already (I have it in everyday-use at home and haven't experienced any problems). It should work for floppies as well as harddisks.

So yes, windows supports installable filesystem drivers.

cheers Joe

Actually it would go something like this:

1. Hey, I wrote a story on this floppy.
2. Cool, have you ever heard of a flash drive?
1. No
2. Thanks for the story, I'll take it home, pop it in my floppy drive and... wait! AH! My computer does not have a floppy drive!
1. Yes, the poor things are becoming rather extict. I'll buy a 256 mb flash drive at my local hardware distributer for $20 dollars!
2. You use Linux, right?
1. Yes, why?
2 then chucks his copy of Windows XP professional at 1 and it hits him in the neck and kills him.

;D

Just don't tell Microsoft that you are using the LFN-supporting good old VFAT driver that used to be legal, and you'll be fine.

This most likely has absolutely nothing to do with Linux or hobby os people, and absolutely everything to do with all the USB sticks, mobile phones, video recorders and whatnot that use FAT.

And well, writing a filesystem driver for Windows isn't exactly impossible, especially if you don't need the complexity of ext2, but are happy with something more simple.

That said, who uses floppies anyway? It's called U-S-B sti-ck.