4 ms·
Unfortunately his statement is still valid even after 6 yrs, it is still a complicated disaster. And it uses Fat32 and PE. An abomination in my view.
by pankajdoharey 9y ago
Unfortunately his statement is still valid even after 6 yrs, it is still a complicated disaster. And it uses Fat32 and PE. An abomination in my view.
- rkangel 9y agoFAT32 is a good choice IMO. It's the simplest of the "mainstream" filesystems.
- xxs 9y agocorrect me if I am wrong but it's still patented by Microsoft. Also time precision is up to even seconds (i.e. it can not store file stamp 'modified at 10:00:01')
- zaarn 9y agoFAT is only patented if you want long filenames. If 8~3 filenames are long enough (and for EFI boot they are) then you can use FAT32 with short names. Additionally the specific EFI FAT32 implementation grants various patent rights which means you can implement EFI FAT32 (atleast, last time I checked by the situation) The other restrictions of the FS barely matter since 99.9% of the time it's used as /boot it will be read from and has barely any activity. The data integrity can be insured by setting up secureboot (MS or User/Setup mode) [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#Patents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#Patents
- chungy 9y ago> Also time precision is up to even seconds (i.e. it can not store file stamp 'modified at 10:00:01') In the pure form of the file system, yes, but with VFAT (which also adds long file names, creation time stamps, and access time stamps), the precision is exactly 1 second increments.
- thriftwy 9y agoMy main memory of VFAT comes from Windows 95 (or was it 98), I remember that when you saw this word anywhere, this meant your operating system is now borked beyond any repair.
- userbinator 9y agoIf the patents haven't already expired, they're probably expiring very soon. Windows 95 which was the first to have the LFN feature came out more than 20 years ago.
- xxs 9y agoWith the sibling comment references: 2001-09-04 US6286013B1, so 2021. However that affect only long filenames which should be ok for EFI
- rotorblade 9y agoIs it a good choice though? Isn't there a bunch of possible issues with FAT patents, in case someone wants to ship a product that boots, that could have been avoided by using something else? (I don't know, I just have some vague memory of some Tomtom/Microsoft conflict due to FAT) edit: user 'xxs' managed to type up the same issue before me (while I was typing mine).
- daurnimator 9y agoI think only exFAT has patent issues? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT#Portability_and_adoption https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT#Portability_and_adoption
- pankajdoharey 9y agoBoth have.
- pankajdoharey 9y agoYes you are absolutely right about the tomtom fiasco and they did end up paying MS.
- zaarn 9y agoFAT32 is not a bad choice. It's a relatively simple filesystem that reduces the amount of stuff the UEFI has to deal with while also being understood by basically any modern operating system (modern = since 2000) The only other option I'm aware of that is cross-OS would be UDF, which back then wasn't popular outside DVDs and even today people continue to ignore. Though it would have been patent free.