5.10.6. Filesystem comparison
Table 5-1. Comparing Filesystem Features
| FS Name | Year Introduced | Original OS | Max File Size | Max FS Size | Journaling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FAT16 | 1983 | MSDOS V2 | 4GB | 16MB to 8GB | N |
| FAT32 | 1997 | Windows 95 | 4GB | 8GB to 2TB | N |
| HPFS | 1988 | OS/2 | 4GB | 2TB | N |
| NTFS | 1993 | Windows NT | 16EB | 16EB | Y |
| HFS+ | 1998 | Mac OS | 8EB | ? | N |
| UFS2 | 2002 | FreeBSD | 512GB to 32PB | 1YB | N |
| ext2 | 1993 | Linux | 16GB to 2TB4 | 2TB to 32TB | N |
| ext3 | 1999 | Linux | 16GB to 2TB4 | 2TB to 32TB | Y |
| ReiserFS3 | 2001 | Linux | 8TB8 | 16TB | Y |
| ReiserFS4 | 2005 | Linux | ? | ? | Y |
| XFS | 1994 | IRIX | 9EB | 9EB | Y |
| JFS | ? | AIX | 8EB | 512TB to 4PB | Y |
| VxFS | 1991 | SVR4.0 | 16EB | ? | Y |
| ZFS | 2004 | Solaris 10 | 1YB | 16EB | N |
Legend
Table 5-2. Sizes
| Kilobyte - KB | 1024 Bytes |
|---|---|
| Megabyte - MB | 1024 KBs |
| Gigabyte - GB | 1024 MBs |
| Terabyte - TB | 1024 GBs |
| Petabyte - PB | 1024 TBs |
| Exabyte - EB | 1024 PBs |
| Zettabyte - ZB | 1024 EBs |
| Yottabyte - YB | 1024 ZBs |
It should be noted that Exabytes, Zettabytes, and Yottabytes are rarely encountered, if ever. There is a current estimate that the worlds printed material is equal to 5 Exabytes. Therefore, some of these filesystem limitations are considered by many as theoretical. However, the filesystem software has been written with these capabilities.
For more detailed information you can visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_systems.