Given that Linux has a NTFS driver, you probably shouldn't worry about patents. And even if there were patents, Microsoft wouldn't care about your little OS---even if they found out, it's too insignificant for them to care. ReactOS (an open source Windows clone), which gets a huge deal of attention, breaks dozens of patents and rules (e.g., some of the developers looked at the NT code released by Microsoft to university students and other code that leaked from Windows 2000 and are still on the team; others don't do proper clean room engineering, they just look at Microsoft's disassembly and then reimplement certain components, etc.) Microsoft didn't do anything about it, although they have made it clear they know about the project.
_________________ "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.", Popular Mechanics (1949) [ Project UDI ]
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