Microsoft's New Tollgate: exFAT on Flash Media

And here we go again. MS somehow manages to convince some big standards group to use its closed, proprietary system instead of something existing that is open, tested, and works. How do they do it? Does MS run these places or something? Like TC says, ext2 or some such would be perfect. But of course that will never happen, because MS will whine and complain about how the device "doesn't support Windows". When in reality it's Windows that doesn't support the filesystem of the device (and we all know how likely they are to incorporate support for it without being forced...). Once again, MS shows us it's all about controlling your data and money, and that they want all of the control and all of the money.

@techiem2 MS pays lots and lots of money and pulls lots of strings to make that happen.

I wish I had just a drop of all the bribe..er..I mean..lobbying...money they pay out to politicians/organizations/standards groups/etc......

@techiem2 You'd be set for life...

Wasnt there an exfat (open source) for linux out there in the wild already although somewhat incomplete? I agree that these standards bodies are MORONS and always embrace closed standards held by monopolistic giants. Wouldnt it make the devices cost less for EVERYBODY even the manufacturers if they used free and open standards>? We need to look into the "SD Card Association" see whos there where they get money etc etc. We also need to bombard them with emails and make sure posts on all the technical boards/blogs etc. point out everything we have stated here

http://www.sdcard.org/developers/about/member_companies/

MS isn't on the board but is an Executive Member, whatever that means.

Edit: Answered my own question:

Quoting: What is the structure of the alliance? The SD Association has two levels of membership - Executive and General.

Executive members may attend all meetings and are entitled to vote on all SD Association related matters, receive all publications of the corporation and serve on the Board of Directors. The annual fee to join at the Executive membership level is $4500 per year.

General members may attend all meetings and receive all publications of the organization.

The annual fee to join at the General membership level is $2000 per year.

From http://www.sdcard.org/developers/faq/

All that is gold does not glitter, and all who bribe don't do it in money.

Just a few rounds of Bikini Golf in the Bahamas would do it for most "Standards" "bodies".