Report: Linux and USB 3.0

As I recall, part of the problem with moving to a patent-free format for USB drives is that Windows users would have to install the drivers because Microsoft wouldn't support an alternative format. Well, this is the opportunity, as Windows users will have to install drivers for USB 3.0 anyway.

They'll have to install a driver for FAT64 too, so as usual MS' arguments are fibs, and swallowed by the dumb.

There's UDF - which already is supported on Windows XP and later as well as Mac OSX and Linux "out of the box", and which MUST have a lot of already-working "embedded" implementations available since it's also the filesystem used for DVDs.

The only limitations are the need for 3rd-party addons for XP to support WRITING to UDF (it READS fine by default, but writing to the filesystem in XP needs third-party addons. I believe it's Windows 2000 and later that includes full support by default), and the sadly abandoned state of the open-source filesystem tools (no fsck, mkudffs works fine but the documentation, at least, needs some updating).

Still quite do-able, I think, if there are enough people promoting the idea.

Sadly, not going to happen. MS has already poured money around and infected the Secure Digital manufacturers with patent encumbered exFAT. We'll be subjected to crappy filesystems and an MS dependency for quite some time.

The only way to escape MS anti-competitive practises seems to be to have MS beamed into outer space by an alien spaceship.