Microsoft Publishes exFAT Specification, Encourages Linux Support

[waxhead]

Nice move Microsoft, but I am very suspiciously thinking about the three evil E's ... embrace, extend and extinguish! - history usually repeats itself.

Anyway , what will probably happen is that Microsoft will keep integrating WSL into everything they already have, then they will write a Windows like desktop/shell on top of that, and that will run a wine like layer that runs Windows programs but integrates them into the Windows like shell that runs on top of Linux which is emulated on the WSL level that runs on a outdated Windows that probably requires DOS4GW and a floppy drive reintroduced as something new, groundbreaking and exciting.

Why ?.... because...:

Microsoft Windows is a sixty-four bit bugfix of a thirty-two bit extension and a graphical shell to a sixteen-bit patch to an eight-bit operating system originally coded for a four-bit microprocessor which was written by a two-bit company that can't stand one bit of competition.

[holunder]

What if Linux is in the same drive as the Windows one? (which is the case for my laptop) Is this still viable?

No problem, just don’t try to access the NTFS volume, this might end bad…

[tildearrow]

No problem, just don’t try to access the NTFS volume, this might end bad…

I see. I thought reads/writes to the OS disk were forbidden...

[kpedersen]

I'd like an open source Windows for Workgroups 3.11.

Yes! And an open-source vesa+ driver so I can use it on an emulator at larger / widescreen resolutions. Pretty much the only games I play these days are DOS and Windows 3.1 so I would be sorted

I started on my own driver but there isn't much support going forwards; all the shite hardware companies of old have taken their drivers to the grave with them; fsck them very much.

[starshipeleven]

Average Joe with his 64GB exFAT-formatted microSD disagrees.
Video production studios disagree too.

To be fair, neither is using Linux, so the point still stands.

[ed31337]

Watch out folks, "It's a TRAAAAP!"

[holunder]

I see. I thought reads/writes to the OS disk were forbidden...

I haven’t tested this with Windows so far. But there are other tools like third-party partition managers for Windows that write to the same drive as the Windows partition is on too.

[Panda_Wrist]

I'm tired of hearing EEE. Microsoft knows that they can't extinguish linux. We need a new 3 letters, at least when it comes to linux. I'm thinking EEA

Embrace (Linux for Azure, WSL) Extend (what this post is about) and Accept (accept that they can't kill it, so they join it and use it as much to best suit their own needs even if it means helping it as well). Microsoft will never truly be friendly with linux but knows that they can't get rid of it. So now they are trying to do the next best thing, try to keep people from leaving them for it by bringing it to them. If they would try to kill support for linux after adding it, they'll lose the people they tried to keep and lose more for pissing off to many people.

I think Microsoft is learning from Google. Google which is far more evil than Microsoft is using Linux and open source to its advantaged, Microsoft which is also evil is now trying to do the same.

[JMB9]

I think Microsoft is learning from Google. Google which is far more evil than Microsoft is using Linux and open source to its advantaged, Microsoft which is also evil is now trying to do the same.

I just remind you of "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it."
Microsoft had stolen DOS and also Windows NT (VMS derivate - much older than Unix - as update by DEC too bad to be usable) - and called kids pirates.
Microsoft urged to only pre-install Windows - those wanting to pre-install Linux won't get Windows licenses or only by a huge price tag.
The only company being more evil than Microsoft is Apple.
Currently I don't see that anything has changed - Microsoft just had to much paying customers who wanted Linux.
Google has aims of their own - it makes money by advertising so selling personal data in some way or let other companies benefit from that knowledge.
And yes - they make money with Linux - as IBM - and both pay little back in comparison of their gains. It's called business.
But at least both are no threat to Linux.
The entire SecureBoot mess is not caused by Google, nor the HW problems: caused by the Windows monopoly.
Microsoft is good at paying people to use Windows - even schools. It's the same with Apple. And politicians are responsible for this.
So I really can not think of any ethics (based on logic by definition - just to spoil the next discussion in advance) being able to say Google is more evil than Microsoft.
And running Linux on Windows is a really bad idea - a buggy proprietary OS full of backdoors running the Linux kernel - just think of it.
Even letting a Windows guest running under Linux should make anyone feel uncomfortable - similar to running a virus under Wine.
But concerning this thread: the kernel hackers are well prepared to just get all info (reverse engineered and directly from Microsoft) and make a driver which has no backdoors and not that many bugs as the original code ...
They would never accept a binary blob (so no danaer's gift - maybe chalk for the wolf ) ... and will improve that code further over time.
So yes, Microsoft may deserve a "thank you" for this small but appreciated move.

[L_A_G]

Definitely a step in the right direction, but not the exact one I would have wanted them to take. That would have been implementing out-of-the-box support for Ext4 in Windows rather than pushing an improved version of an a practically ancient in-house standard.

Also being the eternal cynic I can't help but to suspect this may just be a ploy to ploy to push support into mainline and then suing companies shipping Linux devices for using their proprietary file system technology. Over the years they've extracted quite a bit of money out of Android device vendors trough some good old fashion patent trolling by threatening to sue them over a bunch of their patents and FAT/exFAT support.

Back in the day when Windows Phone was still around their main sales pitch to device vendors was a slide deck called something like "Android isn't free". In it they explained that contrary to popular belief, Android wasn't free because of the patent and technology royalties all Android device makers have to pay Microsoft, but if they switch to Windows phone or at least start offering them side-by-side with their Android offerings they can avoid those license fees. Obviously none of these very half-assed devices was ever a success and neither were Nokia's Windows Phone devices, which weren't half-assed as Nokia had first gotten quite a big check to chose Windows Phone over Android or their in-house efforts and then later sold their phone division to Microsoft (so it was just a Microsoft division).