# ext4

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/ext4/

27 people recommended ext4 in Hacker News comments, 3 had mixed feelings and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 12 months, in 23 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Default on most Linux systems and praised as a boring, reliable choice; critics note small-extent fragmentation and inode settings needing tuning.

Summary written by Claude from 34 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 31 of those comments still count.

## Why people recommend it

- Stable, boring and rock solid (3 comments in the sample): "still very popular as a solid, no frills filesystem" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46839568)) "it's been a reliable default OS for many years now" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49727029)) "I value boring and rock solid stability" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48829310))
- Works well with RAID and LUKS (3 comments in the sample): "I've been using ext4 with SnapRAID and mergerfs for years without issues." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46842637)) "I never had this happen with ext4 alone or atop Linux raid." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47664602)) "was using LUKS + EXT4 -- with no issues whatsoever" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48732255))
- Default for most Linux users (2 comments in the sample): "it is the default for the large majority of Linux users and the disk layout of choice for every system I install for normal people" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50064519)) "ext4 for your primary drive" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49769238))
- Reliable when resized and at scale (2 comments in the sample): "since enlarging live ext* filesystems has been very reliable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47687764)) "50TB+ on ext4 and xfs, and no, no bit rot." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47659643))

## What people warn about

- Small extents and fragmentation (1 comment in the sample): "it isn't immune to fragmentation" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45791858))

## Other filesystems people recommend

- [ZFS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zfs/): 239 recommend, 34 mixed, 49 criticize
- [Btrfs](https://hackerapproved.com/p/btrfs/): 63 recommend, 31 mixed, 79 criticize
- [bcachefs](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bcachefs/): 20 recommend, 6 mixed, 12 criticize
- [XFS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/xfs/): 16 recommend, 3 mixed, 9 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "ext4", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ext4/ (27 recommend, 3 mixed, 4 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.