The exFAT filesystem prepares its landing on Linux: it will become open-source

Pablinux

2 minutes

exFAT on Linux

For many years, it could be said that I have been a user of three operating systems: the recently renamed macOS, a Linux distribution generally based on Ubuntu and Windows, the Microsoft system just in case, so that I never get "hung". When I have wanted to format a pendrive in macOS, I have always been tempted to use the exFAT file system, but that prevented me from using said pendrive in Linux. That is something that will change in the near future.

esFAT is a file system that Microsoft released in 2006. The Redmond company says it is the successor to the FAT32, another file system that is compatible with Linux, but the maximum size it can accommodate per file is 4GB. The size limit per file on a drive using exFAT is virtually non-existent. Currently, to be able to use it in Linux we have to do it with third-party software.

exFAT: the successor to the FAT 32 with almost no restrictions

For years and as any company would, Microsoft has used its patents to make cash, but the Microsoft of today is not the same as that of decades ago. Less than a year ago, the company released some 60.000 proprietary patents and soon will do the same with its exFAT file system, so Linux and other operating system users we can use natively, without relying on third-party software.

exFAT is the file system of choice for many manufacturers of SD cards. It is based on FAT, a format used in MS-DOS and some older versions of Windows. When it is released, it can be included in the Linux kernel and anywhere, since that is one of the advantages of open-source. A Microsoft representative explains it like this:

"Microsoft is supporting the addition of the exFAT file system to the Linux kernel and the eventual inclusion of a Linux kernel with exFAT support in a future revision of the Open Invention Network Linux system definition."

This news comes just as Canonical has confirmed initial support for the ZFS filesystem as root on Ubuntu 19.10, which could have been the last push to help Microsoft release its exFAT. For those of us who have a partition to save data or a pendrive, the Redmond company has proposed a problem. Holy problem.


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  1.   Toribio said
    ago 5 years

    "I've always been tempted to use the exFAT filesystem, but that prevented me from using such a USB stick on Linux."

    As simple as:

    sudo apt-install fuse exfat exfat-utils

    And with regard to Exfat going to be open source, let me doubt it, what Microsoft has said is that it will release the rights of use, but not the code, they have not talked about open source anywhere.

    Reply to Toribio