2 years before bytfs is the default filesystem? [LWN.net]

2 years before bytfs is the default filesystem?

Posted Aug 8, 2009 4:08 UTC (Sat) by tytso (✭ supporter ✭, #9993)
Parent article: A short history of btrfs

For community distributions? Maybe. Time will tell. I'm supportive of btrfs, and helped to rally industry support for it behind the scenes, but I'm also realistic about how long it takes to bring a file system to production status. Sun had around two dozen engineers (from what I could tell) working five years (2000-2005) before ZFS was released --- and then it was another three years or so before system administrators really trusted it for critical production systems at least in an enterprise data center. Consider the following report by a system administrator in 2007: http://forestlaw.blogspot.com/2007/03/solaris-zfs-not-rea...

<i>Btrfs is heading for 1.0, a little more than 2 years since the first announcement. This is much faster than many file systems veterans - including myself - expected, especially given that during most of that time, btrfs had only one full-time developer. </i>

Actually, from what I can tell, btrfs is a bit behind schedule. It was supposed to be format-stable by December 2008, and it's not quite format stable yet. Last I heard it still panic'ed on ENOSPC. And its userspace tools are still quite primitive at this point in time.

Can it be ready for community distributions in two years; probably, but a lot of work needs to be put into it between now and then. And from developers beyond just those at Oracle.

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2 years before bytfs is the default filesystem?

Posted Aug 10, 2009 14:51 UTC (Mon) by stanrbt (guest, #60166) [Link] (1 responses)

Quite a spiteful & exposing comment, I think. What is evolution ? Improvement of processes. In other words it is not only possible to build & construct much faster and more efficiently today than say 10 years ago, it is mandatory if we are really trying to improve/advance/develop.

Maybe tytso is getting old ? Maybe he does not have the needed analytical skills to understand that Oracle is currently the only IT company which has resources to act pro-actively in this environment, everyone else is acting re-actively and things in the industry worsen by the day.

It is not the amount of money you throw at a project which makes it successful. Sure, you need some "minimum amount of money" but the approach & the skills you apply are much more important. The "approach" part is the critical one.

I absolutely agree that the success of btrfs depends on much more than just Oracle's muscle but this is what Leadership is all about - give the example, break the ice, change the reality. All of us can talk spiteful rubbish.

2 years before bytfs is the default filesystem?

Posted Aug 10, 2009 15:23 UTC (Mon) by stanrbt (guest, #60166) [Link]

And I forgot to add that the Linux "leadership" can help speed up the maturing of btrfs, the question is do you want to do so ?

Or do you prefer to play the "Cat on a hot tin roof" game ? Please do not try digging in the IBM/Microsoft way - evolution will swipe you away since you are lacking their backers.

Just to avoid any speculation - I have nothing to do with Oracle. I am simply a manager who has been crazy about open source for a looong time (not just squeezing money out of it). Not many of us around, right ? Have you ever wondered why ?