> On Tue, 4 Dec 2007, Stefano Spinucci wrote:
>
> >>> On 11/7/07, can you guess?
> >> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >>> wrote:
> >> However, ZFS is not the *only* open-source
> approach
> >> which may allow that to happen, so the real
> question
> >> becomes just how it compares with equally
> inexpensive
> >> current and potential alternatives (and that would
> >> make for an interesting discussion that I'm not
> sure
> >> I have time to initiate tonight).
> >>
> >> - bill
> >
> > Hi bill, only a question:
> > I'm an ex linux user migrated to solaris for zfs
> and its checksumming; you say there are other
> open-source alternatives but, for a linux end user,
> I'm aware only of Oracle btrfs
> (http://oss.oracle.com/projects/btrfs/), who is a
> Checksumming Copy on Write Filesystem not in a final
> state.
> >
> > what *real* alternatives are you referring to???
> >
> > if I missed something tell me, and I'll happily
> stay with linux with my data checksummed and
> snapshotted.
> >
> > bye
> >
> > ---
> > Stefano Spinucci
> >
>
> Hi Stefano,
>
> Did you get a *real* answer to your question?
> Do you think that this (quoted) message is a *real*
> answer?
Hi, Al - I see that you're still having difficulty understanding basic English,
and your other recent technical-content-free drivel here suggests that you
might be better off considering a career in janitorial work than in anything
requiring even basic analytical competence. But I remain willing to help you
out with English until you can find the time to take a remedial course (though
for help with finding a vocation more consonant with your abilities you'll have
to look elsewhere).
Let's begin by repeating the question at issue, since failing to understand
that may be at the core of your problem:
"what *real* alternatives are you referring to???"
Despite a similar misunderstanding by your equally-illiterate associate Mr.
Cook, that was not a question about what alternatives provided the specific
support in which Stefano was particularly interested (though in another part of
my response to him I did attempt to help him understand why that interest might
be misplaced). Rather, it was a question about what *I* had referred to in an
earlier post of mine, as you might also have gleaned from the first sentence of
my response to that question ("As I said in the post to which you
responded...") had what passes for your brain been even minimally engaged when
you read it.
My response to that question continued by listing some specific features
(snapshots, disk scrubbing, software RAID) available in Linux and Free BSD that
made them viable alternatives to ZFS for enterprise use (the context of that
earlier post that I was being questioned about). Whether Linux and FreeBSD
also offer management aids I admitted I didn't know - though given ZFS's own
limitations in this area such as the need to define mirror pairs and parity
groups explicitly and the inability to expand parity groups it's not clear that
lack thereof would constitute a significant drawback (especially since the
management activities that their file systems require are comparable to what
such enterprise installations are already used to dealing with). And, in an
attempt to forestall yet another round of babble, I then addressed the relative
importance (or lack thereof) of several predictable "Yes, but ZFS also offers
wonderful feature X..." responses.
Now, not being a psychic myself, I can't state with authority that Stefano
really meant to ask the question that he posed rather than something else. In
retrospect, I suppose that some of his surrounding phrasing *might* suggest
that he was attempting (however unskillfully) to twist my comment about other
open source solutions being similarly enterprise-capable into a provably-false
assertion that those other solutions offered the *same* features that he
apparently considers so critical in ZFS rather than just comparably-useful
ones. But that didn't cross my mind at the time: I simply answered the
question that he asked, and in passing also pointed out that those features
which he apparently considered so critical might well not be.
Once again, though, I've reached the limit of my ability to dumb down the
discussion in an attempt to reach your level: if you still can't grasp it,
perhaps a friend will lend a hand.
- bill
This message posted from opensolaris.org
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