Frankly, while I love Linux for a bunch of things (it runs my desktop, amongst other things), I really think the impetus of "Geeze, can't we get Linux to have THAT" every time some interesting thing comes along is a BAD IDEA.
Having a large ecosystem of OSes which can cross-germinate ideas, but not necessarily code, is a Good Thing. However, trying to make one OS do everything well is a recipe for disaster, let alone code bloat. It's like trying to design a car that: (a) does 0-60mph under 3 seconds (b) can haul 2 tons of cargo (c) get 50mpg and (d) cost under $15k. Not going to happen, and the compromises that you have to make to achieve certain goals make other attributes either difficult or impossible to accomplish. OSes should have a "optimum" targeted user population - one that gain the most benefit from the OSes' strengths, and are hurt least by it's weaknesses. Trying for a One True OS is a silly (and dangerously shortsighted) goal. In ZFS's case, if the ideas around it are so attractive, then reimplementing the ideas in a Linux-compatible FS module are entirely possible, even if certain patents must be worked around. I'm not 100% sure, and I'm certainly not one of the lawyers, but my reading of the ZFS internals and related IP leaves me with the impression that a complete clean-room reimplementation is entirely possible, though it may not have the same performance profile. That is, the ZFS on-disk format isn't IP protected, and the general concepts of how ZFS works (pools, CoW, snapshots, etc) are open, it's just _how_ the guts do these things which are. So, I'm actually pretty glad that ZFS will remain solely in the CDDL-compatible land, and that if a ZFS-compatible system shows up in GPL-land, it will have a different underlying engineering, which may provide many more interesting insights into improving what is truly the FS-for-the-new-millenium. (Please, if I'm wrong about our [Sun's] patent protection of ZFS's internals, I want to know _now_. Speak up and correct me please, folks). -- Erik Trimble Java System Support Mailstop: usca22-123 Phone: x17195 Santa Clara, CA Timezone: US/Pacific (GMT-0800) _______________________________________________ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
