It’s good to see that the kernel developers as always are seeing that we get the latest file system support. The exFAT format is apparently something that Microsoft is pushing for large removable media. Of course Linux will be there to provide compatibility for those of us who prefer freedom. Thanks for your attentiveness, kernel genii.
Support like this was crucial in my last job, where we used Linux to perform all sorts of analyses on computer storage media. It was impossible to use Microsoft operating systems for this work because there were far too many undocumented hooks running behind the scenes that could affect the process. Hopefully we’ll see this support coming to a kernel near you shortly.
One probably important question is if there are any patent concerns and I have a sinking suspicion about the answer :/
I think Novell might be wrapped up in this somehow with prior art. But I don’t know for sure, nor do I know whether their involvement is a good thing.
On the other hand, I haven’t seen anyone stripping out FAT12/16/32 support….