Re: exFAT as the new

[andre.dolenc%kolumbus.fi@localhost]

Hi,

Lack of support for exFAT is a problem to whom? Certainly, not commercial 
companies. They need it, they pay for it. The interesting element of this case 
is that MS has allowed a company to deliver a Linux driver. I have no means to 
verify, but I am quite certain that, whoever pays for that implementation, is 
not allowed to release the source code under the GPL.

Consumers installing *bsd and linux for free on some computer? The world is moving ahead. As an example, see http://www.dropbox.com/ 
One should expect that, over time, sharing data thru the "cloud" becomes the norm, while physical media becomes the exception. Wait long enough, and this prediction will be true :-)

IMHO, the bigger problem is using the data one wants to share, say, MS Word and 
MP3 music.

As this thread suggests, creating interoperability between open source platforms could be 
useful and, probably, realistic. One "simple" way would be the ability to use 
Linux filesystems on rumps?

br André

Thomas Mueller [mueller6724%bellsouth.net@localhost] wrote: 
> from "Jasper Wallace" <jasper%pointless.net@localhost>:
>
> > Not saber-rattling, you *will* need a licence to ship devices (or, in the
> > US, code) that supports exFAT:
>
> > 
> http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/en/us/IntellectualProperty/IPLicensing/Programs/exFATFileSystem.aspx
>
> > exfat is going to be a very real problem for open source operating
> > systems...
>
> > I've used ext2fs to move files between os's see this:
>
> > http://pointless.net/blog/2009/09/22/maximally-compatible-ext2fs/
>
> > But i don't know the state of the ext2 drivers for OS X and windows on the
> > latest versions of OS X and windows, iirc it dosn't work anymore :(
>
> Maybe I'd get about the same thing if I used newfs_ext2fs in NetBSD?
>
> I don't really know if Linux could be made to work with UFS (BSD file system) 
> read-write, might be better to try on a nonboot partition.
>
> There is still the possibility of xfs, which I see in pkgsrc and the FreeBSD 
> ports; xfsprogs is included in Linux Slackware.  Try on a USB stick, which I 
> could also try with a maximally compatible ext2fs.  Experiment before I use for 
> big data.
>
> It seems exFAT is ruled out for open-source OSes.
>
> Tom