Microsoft wants to bring exFAT to the Linux kernel – TechCrunch



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ExFAT, the Extended File Allocation Table, is Microsoft's file system for flash drives and SD cards, which launched in 2006. Because it was proprietary, mounting these drives and cards. Today, however, Microsoft it is supporting the addition of exFAT to the Linux kernel and publishing the technical specifications for exFAT.

"It's important that the Linux community can use kernel with confidence. To this end, we will be making Microsoft's technical specification for exFAT Available
to facilitate development of conformant, interoperable implementations. "

In addition to wanting to become part of the Linux kernel, Microsoft also says that it hopes that the exFAT specs will become part of the OpenInvention Network's Linux definition. Once accepted, the code would benefit "from the defensive patent commitments of OIN's 3040+ members and licensees," the company notes.

Microsoft and Linux used to be deadly enemies – and some in the Linux community definitely still think of Microsoft as anti-open source. These days, though, Microsoft has clearly embraced open source and Linux, which is now the most popular operating system on Azure and, optionally, part of Windows 10, thanks to its Windows Subsystem for Linux. It'll still be interesting to see the community. The aftertaste of Microsoft's strategy of "embrace, extend and extinguish" still lingers in the community, after all, and not too long ago, this move would have been interpreted as yet another example of this.

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