Linux may remove the obsolete HPFS filesystem driver

A proposed patch would remove 6,969 lines of Linux’s orphaned HPFS driver, which has no known active users and fails on SMP and PREEMPT kernel configurations. The patch has been submitted for review; removal is not yet settled.

The proposal also cites the driver’s long-unmaintained state and a recently reported denial-of-service bug. In the seven-comment Phoronix discussion, readers noted that the driver is effectively unusable on current SMP kernels and that HPFS had long-standing limitations; one suggested a FUSE alternative for archival use.