[ale] Seeking Filesystem Guidance

[DJPfulio at jdpfu.com]

On 4/30/23 09:35, Phil Turmel via Ale wrote:
> Just how old is this Mint system?  The "Fuse" format is almost
> certainly NTFS-3g, which has been superceded by native NTFS in modern
> kernels.
> 
> Choose NTFS.  Don't forget the quick or fast mkfs option or you will
> be twiddling your thumbs for a long time.
> 
> Do not permit such large driver to be formatted in fat* or vfat.


FUSE means non-kernel driver.  It is always slower than a kernel-driver for storage.  It is also easier to release programs that don't have to get passed the kernel review processes.

If you have to connect a SSD/HDD to MS-Windows OR to a device that only supports NTFS, then use NTFS.  If you are streaming from a Linux system to other network devices, choose a native Linux file system.  For lack of any other knowledge, ext4 is a good choice. Connecting to the storage over a network doesn't change the file system that should be selected.  Many people think that if they want to use Samba/CIFS to provide network storage to MS-Windows systems, then they need NTFS storage connected inside Linux.  Actually, using NTFS will make things a bit harder for Samba (and the admin).

Of course, there are lots of different file systems available under Linux, some include a volume manager too, but for most typical desktop users who aren't Unix/Linux admins, keeping it simple with a partition and file system like ext4 is often the best option.

Very few people should be using FAT32 anymore for typical storage.  Exceptions would be if you have an older camera that still uses it.

Newer devices designed to be used with flash SDHC/microSD storage should support exFAT.  Again, choose that if you have a specific need because the storage will physically be connected to either MS-Windows or a specific device.

If the flash storage will be connected to Linux, check out f2fs - Flash Friendly File System.  It supports all the stuff we expect on Linux, but is not journaled, so the write counts will be less.  Some smartphones support f2fs.  On Linux f2fs is a FUSE file system - i.e. non-kernel.