Microsoft announced today that it will support the procase of the exFAT file system (Extended File Allocation Table) in the Linux kernel via the Open Invention Network. The system exFAT file format is developed for USB drives and SD cards by Microsoft.
"Today we are pleased to announce that Microsoft will support the addition of Microsoft's exFAT technology to the Linux kernel," said John Gossman, Microsoft Distinguished Engineer and Linux board member.
Proprietary exFAT technology was introduced about a decade ago in 2006 as the successor to FAT32 in the FAT filesystem family. Today it is used by the vast majority of USB storage devices.
Although it is available free a FUSE-based exFAT FUSE for Linux users who want to have SD and USB cards in their computers, the Microsoft driver to offer a fully functional application.
The code for Linux exFAT will be available with permission of GPLv2 use.
Microsoft even published the technical specifications of exFAT to by clicking here of the Windows Dev Center.
Redmond also announced that it is "making the technical specifications of exFAT free and available to everyone, and the exFAT code that will be built into the Linux kernel will be available under a GPLv2 license."
For the story:
Microsoft was added as a member of The Linux Foundation in November of 2016, after Satya Nadella took over as CEO of the company.
The company also developed the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), which allows Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019 users to run Linux files on their computers.
Redmond developers have recently started working with WSL2 which uses a genuine open source Linux Kernel that developed by Microsoft itself from the fixed version 4.19 of the Linux Kernel.
