Which File System? A Funny File Fable by Ars
Well, the hard drive question was answered, kinda. And yet, people ask, which file system? For a capacious portable drive (>10GB) that doesn’t run software natively (e.g. portable mp3 players), I say, go with 2 partitions. A small (100MB or less) FAT32 partition, where you store various versions and installers of FUSE, MacFUSE, and NTFS-3G and an NTFS partition. This will allow you to run NTFS on any OSX, Windows, or Linux system that you come across, as long as you have install permissions. Unfortunately, NTFS on MacFUSE is pretty slow. There are MacFUSE binaries around that can substantially speed that up, but I forget where to find them though they may not be 100% stable. Careful, NTFS is case-sensitive, but many Win32 applications are not, which can cause serious confusion. Otherwise, you are system dependent. Some places you have choices, others you do not. I would answer this question, but I am not qualified. But Ars has your answers (or at least, short descriptions so you can decide for yourself) along with an amusingly written mini-history.
