Ext2

Ext2, also called ext2fs, standing for Second Extended Filesystem, is a filesystem widely used as a default option by many Linux distributions. It provides standard Unix file semantics such as file permissions and symbolic links.

Ext3 is an enhancement to the ext2 filesystem that adds journalling support to avoid having to perform a filesystem check after a power failure or system crash.

Details

 * Max filename length is 255 characters. Extendable to 1012 if needed. No encoding, though distros seem to be converging on UTF-8.
 * Percentage of disk reserved for root to prevent users filling drive.
 * Large partition support.
 * Filesystem checks can be forced by administrator on boot, plus after a set number of boots.
 * Advanced disk check monitoring so known when there may be problems with disk.

Utilities
The utilities for the ext2 file system come in the e2fsprogs package, it consists of tools like resize2fs, e2label, tune2fs and many more.

Pros

 * Stable,trusted, been around for a long time
 * Not prone to file fragmentation

Cons

 * No journaling (so if power is lost during a write, the filesystem may be corrupted)

Usage in other OS

 * Microsoft Windows
 * ext2fsd
 * explore2fs
 * ext2ifs
 * ext2 IFS for Windows