Well, ext2 is fairly complex, as is any files system, but I can give you a quick over view. For one, it uses a tree-like structure as oppose to a table like structure that FAT uses. This means finding things on the disk can be done faster as searches on a tree are quicker then searches on a strict table. Because of it's tree-like nature there is also no need for "Defragmenting". ext2 can also be formatted to use 1k,2k,or 4k blocks depending on if you want speed or optimized space. 4k blocks means there are less blocks to search so it goes faster when looking for data, 1k blocks mean there is less wasted space if you have a lot of little files. Hope that helps. Btw, anyone used any Journaling fs' like ext3, jfs, xfs, or RieserFS? I am curious as to which one works best.... I am not even sure if ext3 is usuable yet.