4 ms·

Nothing beats the simplicity of FAT. Btrfs has a lot of bugs while being active for a long time. This is mostly related to its complexity. If I'm going to imp

by kreco 4y ago

Nothing beats the simplicity of FAT. Btrfs has a lot of bugs while being active for a long time. This is mostly related to its complexity. If I'm going to implement a filesystem for a custom hardware I would definitely not chose btrfs.

chasil 4y ago
If you want snapshots, dedup, transparent compression, and scrubs then you have precisely three open and/or available choices: ZFS, btrfs, and ReFS. By all means, choose the Microsoft solution, because patent licensing is good for everyone. And the bug myth past into history years ago. "So, we'll repeat this once more: as a single-disk filesystem, btrfs has been stable and for the most part performant for years." https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/09/examining-btrfs-linuxs-perpetually-half-finished-filesystem/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/09/examining-btrfs-linu...
- guipsp 4y ago
  But I just want 5GB files
  - chasil 4y ago
    Microsoft just wants a check from you. We are all forced to pay for this ancient software every time we buy a device that uses it. Wouldn't this money be better used elsewhere? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#Patents https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#Patent...
    - guipsp 4y ago
      Microsoft isn't getting a check from me using FAT32.
      - teknopaul 4y ago
        Hmm that's like saying Google is free.
        babypuncher 4y ago
        Not at all, seeing as all FAT32 related patents expired many years ago
    - ksec 4y ago
      AFAIK, FAT32 is Patent Free, even the Long File Name Patent has expired. The only patent left are on exFAT.
    - Dylan16807 4y ago
      You know patents have a limited life, right? x86_64 with SSE2 is also patent-free right now, as an example.
    - babypuncher 4y ago
      All of those patents expired a long time ago
- babypuncher 4y ago
  None of those features you mention mean anything in the situations where FAT is still being used. FAT is still popular because it is very easy to implement, and anything can read and write to it. It is pretty easy to implement the file system on a low power microcontroller and have it write data to an SD card. Your users can then plug that SD card into any computer and view the data, or add to it. Using btrfs in a situation like this means a lot more coding on your end, and your users lose the convenience of the SD card using a file system they can easily interact with. Nobody is using FAT for their primary system partition. It is almost exclusively relegated to embedded systems and small external storage devices where broad compatibility is an important feature.
jonny_eh 4y ago
> Nothing beats the simplicity of FAT. Or the sheer ubiquity, and therefore cross-device compatibility.

by kreco 4y ago

chasil 4y ago

If you want snapshots, dedup, transparent compression, and scrubs then you have precisely three open and/or available choices: ZFS, btrfs, and ReFS. By all means, choose the Microsoft solution, because patent licensing is good for everyone. And the bug myth past into history years ago. "So, we'll repeat this once more: as a single-disk filesystem, btrfs has been stable and for the most part performant for years." https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/09/examining-btrfs-linuxs-perpetually-half-finished-filesystem/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/09/examining-btrfs-linu...

guipsp 4y ago
But I just want 5GB files
- chasil 4y ago
  Microsoft just wants a check from you. We are all forced to pay for this ancient software every time we buy a device that uses it. Wouldn't this money be better used elsewhere? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#Patents https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#Patent...
  - guipsp 4y ago
    Microsoft isn't getting a check from me using FAT32.
    - teknopaul 4y ago
      Hmm that's like saying Google is free.
      - babypuncher 4y ago
        Not at all, seeing as all FAT32 related patents expired many years ago
  - ksec 4y ago
    AFAIK, FAT32 is Patent Free, even the Long File Name Patent has expired. The only patent left are on exFAT.
  - Dylan16807 4y ago
    You know patents have a limited life, right? x86_64 with SSE2 is also patent-free right now, as an example.
  - babypuncher 4y ago
    All of those patents expired a long time ago
babypuncher 4y ago
None of those features you mention mean anything in the situations where FAT is still being used. FAT is still popular because it is very easy to implement, and anything can read and write to it. It is pretty easy to implement the file system on a low power microcontroller and have it write data to an SD card. Your users can then plug that SD card into any computer and view the data, or add to it. Using btrfs in a situation like this means a lot more coding on your end, and your users lose the convenience of the SD card using a file system they can easily interact with. Nobody is using FAT for their primary system partition. It is almost exclusively relegated to embedded systems and small external storage devices where broad compatibility is an important feature.

jonny_eh 4y ago

> Nothing beats the simplicity of FAT. Or the sheer ubiquity, and therefore cross-device compatibility.