I don't think "Linux" is to blame here. Linux is only a kernel, which many distributions (e.g. Debian, Gentoo, etc.) build upon to create a whole operating system. Some distributions cater towards geeks, while others are built with less savvy users in mind. It sounds like you may need a more user-friendly distribution like Ubuntu or Linux Mint. My current distro, Debian XFCE, is less friendly, but even so it includes the Thunar file manager which can automatically mount removable devices. I just tested USB drives both with and without partition tables, and they both mounted just fine. Gparted is a partition editor, so I would not expect it to do more than create and edit partition tables. The "Unix philosophy" that most Linux software follows is to do one job and do it well; you simply need to install (or choose a distro that includes) software for the functionality you desire. A separate issue may be ensuring that new users start with an appropriately friendly distribution... Regards, Clyne On 2024-10-26 11:08, CAREY SCHUG via talk wrote:
This is a competitive world.
When new devices come out, Linux adds support for them as it can, they don't say "sorry, you'll have to use the competitive operating system for that", granted some require proprietary drivers, so it is not always possible, but generally we (the market) pressure the manufacturer to support Linux.
If I can walk into a mass market store and buy a storage device formatted in a way that a major competitive operating system will plug n play, then if and 'as soon as' possible, Linux should also.
Apparently MANY USB storage devices are formatted XFAT with no partition table. If there are other storage devices sold in the after market, formatted such that some other widely used operating system will plug-n-play, then Linux should transparently support them also. Knowing some magic commands to type in as superuser, after first figuring out WHICH usb port the device is on, does not count.
Or are we admitting that Linux is just a niche toy for geeks?
Specifically, Linux the operating system should recognize an XFAT disk without a partition table and use it. What if somebody bought one, loaded a bunch of data onto it from that other OS, then wanted to access it on Linux? Not just Linux sysadmins should be able to use it. Joe non technical bird watcher who buys a linux computer at Microcenter should be able to just plug it in and use it.
And if the Linux OS itself can plug-n-play, then gparted should recognize it too.
Since linux now can resize XFAT partitions, hopefully gparted could also shoehorn a partition table under the filesystem on a storage device that has no partition table. I don't know the details, so maybe this would be too hard.
If a multi petabyte mainframe SAN has a USB connector that can be plugged into MS windows, Apple IOS, Android, or any other mass market computing device and "just work", then Linux (and GParted) should provide the same support.
If there is some format that is ONLY available DIRECTLY from the vendor of a competitive operating system, to people who own and operate that operating system, then this is not a requirement, but would still be nice. For instance, if Oracle sold disks formatted in a way that normally only Sun computers used, but Apple added support in IOS, then Linux should add support too.
--Carey