Linux is all about choice, and this extends to the technology that makes the file system work. Unlike with Windows, where you can choose between just NTFS and FAT32 (with the emphasis being on NTFS), Linux offers many different types of file system technology. Each is designed for varying tasks. Most are scalable, however, which means that they will work just as happily on a desktop PC as on a massive cluster of computers.
Fedora uses the ext3 file system. This is a popular choice among distros, although the SUSE distro uses the
reiserfs system. People are constantly arguing about which file system is best. The principal measuring stick is performance.

Your computer spends a lot of time writing and reading files, so the faster a file system is, the faster your PC will be overall (although, in reality, the hardware is of equal importance). Note that what we’re talking about here is the underlying and invisible technology of the file system. In day-to-day use, the end user won’t be aware of any difference between ext3, reiserfs, or another file system technology (although when things go wrong, different tools are used to attempt repairs; their selection is automated within Fedora).

Here are the various types along with notes about what they offer:

• ext2: Fast, stable, and well established, ext2 was once the most popular type of file system technology used
on Linux. It has now been eclipsed by ext3.
• ext3: An extension of ext2, ext3 allows journaling, a way of recording what has been written to disk so that a
recovery can be attempted when things go wrong.
• reiserfs: This is another journaling file system.
• jfs: This is a journaling file system created by IBM. It’s used on industrial implementations of UNIX.
• xfs: This is a 64-bit journaling file system created by Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) and used on its own version
of UNIX, as well as Linux.