Microsoft company technical to the exFAT file system and expressed its willingness to release the rights to use all exFAT-related patents for royalty-free use in Linux. It is noted that the published documentation is sufficient to create a portable exFAT implementation that is fully compatible with Microsoft products. The ultimate goal of the initiative is to add exFAT support to the core Linux kernel.
Members of the Open Invention Network (OIN), including Microsoft, agree not to sue for the use of their technologies in components "” (“Linux System”). But exFAT is not one of them, so this technology is not subject to Microsoft's obligation to enable the use of its patents. To remove the threat of patent claims, Microsoft plans to have the exFAT driver included in the next revision of the definition of a "Linux system". Thus, patents related to exFAT will fall within the scope of the agreement concluded between the participants in the OIN.
Notably, exFAT patents used to be в Microsoft, pre-installation of solutions based on Linux. A driver with exFAT implementation six years ago was by Samsung under the GPLv2 license, but it is still not included in the mainstream Linux kernel due to the risk of patent infringement claims by Microsoft. Still on the Microsoft website with the requirement to obtain a license to use exFAT and information that this technology has been licensed by more than 100 companies, including the largest OEMs.
The exFAT file system was created by Microsoft to address the limitations of FAT32 when used on large flash drives. Support for the exFAT file system was introduced in Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows XP with Service Pack 2. The maximum file size compared to FAT32 was expanded from 4 GB to 16 exabytes, the maximum partition size limit of 32 GB was removed, to reduce fragmentation and increase speed, a bitmap of free blocks has been introduced, the limit on the number of files in one directory has been raised to 65 thousand, and the ability to store ACLs has been provided.
Addition: Greg Kroah-Hartman (Greg Kroah-Hartman) inclusion of the exFAT driver developed by Samsung in the experimental “staging” section of the Linux kernel (“drivers/staging/”), where components requiring improvement are placed. It is noted that inclusion in the kernel will simplify bringing the driver to a state suitable for delivery in the main kernel source tree.
Source: opennet.ru