Re:It is good news ... But ... (Score 1)

but we already know that the OS filesystem routines have only very limited /forward compatibility/ with future NTFS versions.

Exactly. My point is, whatever forward compatibility XP NTFS has, you can be sure isn't already in the OSS NTFS. It's only stable because it's worked so far. Whatever (as yet unused) forward compat in the current NTFS is exactly the leeway immediately available. Any movement will break OSS NTFS, but not XP. In the meantime, XP can be patched with another NTFS with more goodies.