[fuzzix]

Wasn't the patent mess the reason Android stopped supporting usb-storage and now uses (the horror!) MTP?

I think UDF is well supported by everything now and has several advantages over FAT (including large file and basic rwx permissions support).

[cnvogel]

The rationale behind using MTP is that "in the old days", the android device had to unmount its "/sdcard" partition and hand over the block-device to the PC, that mounted it just like any single-partition usb-stick. Downside is, that a) the PC mounting the android device could arbitrarily corrupt the filesystem structure and b) all programs accessing the filesystem on the android side needed to shutdown, and c) you only could use a filesytem well supported by all major computer operating systems: hence FAT.

MTP doesn't work on the level of a block-device, but rather works like, e.g. "rsync/scp/sftp over USB". So the Android handset can leave the partition mounted, all program can stay running, any filesystem can be used on the handset side, and potential for data corruption is minimized.

[fuzzix]

But it doesn't work like "rsync/scp/sftp over USB". No seek or partial transfer support makes it a dog. Very poor cross-platform support makes it a terrible choice.

[gambiting]

It is still a million times better choice than mounting the device directly as a block device.

[fuzzix]

A read only block device would have been better and would actually work on non-Windows OSes.

[yincrash]

You only read from your external storage and never write to it, from the computer?

[fuzzix]

Sure, with an option to enable write with the usual "omg ur apps!" warning.