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Does Microsoft simply not allow it or is it because Apple refuses to pay licensing?

I know there are software workarounds, but my question is simply WHY?

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The question is a bit misleading since the NFTS-3G driver enables read/write access to NTFS partitions. A less misleading question would be "Why isn't write-access to NTFS partitions provided with Mac OS X?" – las3rjock Aug 12 '09 at 8:29
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4 Answers

up vote 6 down vote

It is a licensing issue. NTFS is microsoft's proprietary format and holds the rights to it.

Here is a developer on the MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) that asked about the issue for an app he was writing and was unable to get information.

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/isvtoolsprocessesandarchitecture/thread/699e4f81-e54c-4326-b775-17c68526a1bd

This is the information in the Technical Reference that is available.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc758691(WS.10).aspx

And the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS

Mac OS X v10.3 and later include read-only support for NTFS-formatted partitions. The GPL-licenced NTFS-3G also works on Mac OS X through FUSE and allows reading and writing to NTFS partitions. A proprietary solution for Mac OS X with read/write access is "Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X".[23]

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A related discussion on MSDN:social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/os_standocs/thread/… . – nagul Aug 12 '09 at 8:47
@nagal Excellent find and it is a recent discussion. – Troggy♦ Aug 12 '09 at 14:17
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up vote 2 down vote

There's no concrete evidence that I have found online to say why / why not, however I believe you're correct in that it's a licensing issue.

Snow Leopard will see HFS+ drivers being used with Boot Camp and Windows - meaning you can use your HFS+ formatted drives in Windows.

Perhaps we'll see a similar trend from Microsoft regarding NTFS - a possibility, given that Exchange support is now coming to Snow Leopard.

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..but you'll only be able to read from your HFS+ drives from Windows, to "prevent PC viruses from affecting Mac OS X" which is.. err.. questionable apple.com/macosx/refinements/enhancements-refinements.html – dbr Aug 12 '09 at 10:52
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As dumb as it sounds I think that will actually be okay for the vast majority of users - I know that personally, all I've wanted was to copy my iTunes library across when I'm using BootCamp. – EvilChookie Aug 12 '09 at 15:37
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up vote 0 down vote

I don't think it's necessarily a licensing issue. The Linux kernel is able to read NTFS filesystems, as well as write (but they consider that "dangerous." Mac OS X has the ability to read NTFS, but not write.

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up vote 0 down vote

From the NTFS Wikipedia page:

Details on the implementation's internals are not released, which makes it difficult for third-party vendors to provide tools to handle NTFS.

This suggests that it's some sort of licensing issue. Were it not for the NTFS-3G project, there would probably be no way for most non-Windows operating systems (Linux, Mac OS X, etc.) to write to NTFS partitions.

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