this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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I want to learn more about file systems from the practical point of view so I know what to expect, how to approach them and what experience positive or negative you had / have.

I found this wikipedia's comparison but I want your hands-on views.

For now my mental list is

  • NTFS - for some reason TVs on USB love these and also Windows + Linux can read and write this
  • Ext4 - solid fs with journaling but Linux specific
  • Btrfs - some modern fs with snapshot capability, Linux specific
  • xfs - servers really like these as they are performant, Linux specific
  • FAT32 - limited but recognizable everywhere
  • exFAT - like FAT32 but less recognizable and less limited
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Depends. Slower desktop machines XFS.
Standard desktop XFS, if it has a smaller SSD, Btrfs.
Home server ext4/XFS + ZFS. Generic servers at work ext4/XFS, backup/storage servers ZFS.
Database server, experiment with ZFS with compression enabled - ratio 2:1, but encountered problems (probably a bad HBA model), standard ext4/XFS.
Hosts with virtualization, small server - XFS, big server - ZFS (technically a ZVOL).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

dual boot NixOS and FreeBSD on a single drive, ext4 on Nix and ZFS on FreeBSD. each partition has its own boot, swap and root, all encrypted

btw, OP wrote that FAT32 is limited, isn't it the default fs for the boot partition? can other fs like ext2/3 be used?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Pretty much all ext4 except for a few Windows installs on NTFS.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Whatever my installation CD had as default 😂. I'm guessing ext4?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Depends on the device and the use case, mostly FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, EXT4

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I tried exFAT for my USB stick but car sterio cannot read it.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Most of my drives are EXT4, but I started using BTRFS a couple years ago and will be using it on all new installs from now on. I really like being able to make snapshots and compression reduces the install size quite a bit.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Every photocopy machine I've come across that accept USB sticks do not support exFAT, so what I would do with my USB stick is to split it into two partitions, one FAT32 and the rest exFAT.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Xfs is solid Commenting b/c I'm disappointed no one else recommends

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

ext4 because I value my data and don't want to lose it. I used to mess about with ZFS for mass storage but it's a university course to learn how to use and have decent performance.

I used to use XFS, but ext4 caught up.

And I used to use XFS... on something other than Linux.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (5 children)

I use Btrfs for my root partition to be able to rollback if something goes wrong after update. XFS: in all other cases, since I hate the lost+found directory on ext4. Although I don't think there's any significant difference between ext4 and xfs in performance and reliability.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (4 children)

F2FS, because solid state and speed

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

NTFS for the drive I had before jumping to Mint. Currently reporting several hundred gigabytes free, but refusing to make any new files, because... I don't know. I'll deal with it after an upcoming move.

The OS / home SSD is ext4, and so is the fat loud hard disk I recently purchased through an entire month of fighting Amazon over gift cards.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Btrfs on my Linux desktops and laptops, ZFS on my server, APFS on my Apple devices I guess

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

EXT4 on PC, ZFS on my server and APFS on my mac

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