INFO | Overview of the most important file systems – from LINUX to WINDOWS
| Category | File system | Characteristics | Areas of application | Platforms |
| Linux Standard | ext4 | Journaling, large files/volumes, extents, defragmentation, backward compatibility to ext3/ext2 | Standard for many Linux distributions, desktop and server use | Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL, CentOS, Fedora |
| XFS | Journaling, high performance for large files, online defragmentation and resizing | Enterprise Applications, Databases, High-Performance Computing | RHEL, CentOS, SUSE, Fedora | |
| Btrfs | Copy-on-write, snapshots, subvolumes, RAID support, checksums | Modern Linux servers, backup systems, container environments | OpenSUSE, Fedora, Ubuntu (optional) | |
| JFS | Journaling, low CPU usage, efficient storage | Server systems with resource constraints | Linux (support available) | |
| ReiserFS | Efficient on small files, journaling (no longer actively developed) | Older Linux systems, deprecated | Previous Ubuntu and Debian Versions | |
| Network File Systems | NCCR | Network protocol, access to remote file systems, UNIX/Linux access rights | File sharing in UNIX/Linux networks, centralized file servers | Cross-platform |
| SMB/CIFS | Microsoft network protocol, file and printer sharing, cross-platform through Samba | Windows and Linux File Sharing on Mixed Networks | Windows, Linux (Samba), macOS | |
| CephFS | Distributed file system, high scalability, fault-tolerant, based on object storage | Cloud Storage, Big Data, Large Storage Clusters | Linux | |
| GlusterFS | Distributed file system without metadata server, horizontal scaling | Scalable Network Storage, Cloud Environments | Linux | |
| Flash Memory | F2FS | Optimized for NAND Flash, Log-structured, Wear-Leveling | SSDs, eMMC, SD cards, embedded systems | Linux, Android |
| UBIFS | For raw flash memory, wear-leveling, compression | Embedded Systems with Raw NAND Flash | Linux | |
| Cluster File Systems | GFS2 | Shared disk support, simultaneous access of multiple nodes, journaling | Cluster Solutions, High Availability, Virtualization | RHEL, CentOS |
| OCFS2 | Oracle Cluster File System, Shared Disk, Journaling, POSIX Compatible | Databases, Cluster Environments | RHEL, CentOS, SUSE | |
| Lustre | High-performance parallel file system, high scalability | Supercomputers, high-performance computing | Linux | |
| Outdated systems | ext3 | Journaling, predecessor of ext4, limited features | Legacy Linux Systems | Older Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS |
| FAT32 | Wide compatibility, max. file size 4 GB, no permissions | Exchange between OS, USB sticks, memory cards | Cross-platform | |
| Special File Systems | exFAT | Optimized for flash memory, supports large files/volumes, patent-free since 2019 | USB sticks, SD cards, cross-platform file sharing | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| ISO 9660 | Standard for optical data carriers, read-only | CD/DVD images, installation media | Cross-platform | |
| SquashFS | Compressed, read-only, high compression ratios | Linux Live Systems, Embedded Systems, Installation Media | Linux | |
| OverlayFS | Union-mount file system, overlay file systems, efficient | Container technologies (Docker), live systems, temporary changes | Linux | |
| Windows File Systems | NTFS | Journaling, Large Files/Volumes, File Compression, Encryption, Permissions | Windows systems, external hard drives, dual-boot systems | Windows, Linux (NTFS-3G), macOS |
| Other file systems | ZFS | Volume Manager and File System, Copy-on-Write, Snapshots, RAID-Z, Data Integrity, Checksums | NAS systems, servers with high data integrity requirements, backup solutions | FreeBSD, Linux (Ubuntu, Proxmox), TrueNAS |
| APFS | Optimized for Flash/SSD, Copy-on-Write, Snapshots, Encryption | Current macOS and iOS devices | macOS, iOS | |
| Nilfs2 | Log-structured, continuous snapshots, garbage collection | Systems with a need for continuous data protection | Linux |