Ars Technica reports on a story from the early 2000s 2020:
When software and operating system giant Microsoft announced its support for inclusion of the exFAT filesystem directly into the Linux kernel back in August, it didn’t get a ton of press coverage. But filesystem vendor Paragon Software clearly noticed this month’s merge of the Microsoft-approved, largely Samsung-authored version of exFAT into the VFS for-next repository, which will in turn merge into Linux 5.7—and Paragon doesn’t seem happy about it.
Yesterday, Paragon issued a press release about European gateway-modem vendor Sagemcom adopting its version of exFAT into an upcoming series of Linux-based routers. Unfortunately, it chose to preface the announcement with a stream of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) that wouldn’t have looked out of place on Steve Ballmer’s letterhead in the 1990s.
This is some “get the facts” level of tripe. You’d think that in 2020, we’d be spared this sort of nonsense, and I’m sad I’m even spending precious bits on this one – but at least we get the name of Paragon out so you can avoid them like the plague.
You should avoid Paragon’s software like the plague anyway because their filesystem drivers destroy files. Use Tuxera’s drivers if you want NTFS and exFAT support in Linux. Their NTFS driver is slower but it’s safe.
Evidence that modern support of open source isn’t based on the ideology of open source, but the profitability.
Which is a shame
It would be a massive shame if open source could not be profitable. And, running companies off ideologies is the worst management ever.
The corporate greed is the source of innovation? Perhaps, otherwise the opensource world wouldn’t be playing catch up game. The sad story is that they wouldn’t even bother to donate outdated technology to the opensource community. For years Conexant and winmodems were a source of pain for a great many Linux users who wanted basic connectivity. Why don’t they open up their 25kbps modem and faxing code now that it’s history?
Winmodems!!! I remember these! I have a picture somewhere of a 20+ years younger self putting one into a microwave oven.
I’ve been using Paragon’s GetDataBack on Windows for years and it’s done its job flawlessly many a time, but my previous experiences with proprietary FS drivers for Linux were mostly a waste of time. Clearly the exFAT product must be a non-trivial part of their revenue. Pathetic it may well be, but when the earth is crumbling beneath one’s feet, one does get desperate.
paragon can die in a fire.
paying for a filesystem driver is just as unacceptable as having to pay for a piece of software again on a different platform, or having to buy 20+ year old games/applications. selling ‘solutions’ to artificial and arbitrary limitations is the lowliest of scams that reminds me of the popup and malware-ridden crap of the early 2000s.
i’m not the biggest fan, but i can only quote richard stallman on this: ‘we should all make these businesses fail’.