> From: zfs-discuss-boun...@opensolaris.org [mailto:zfs-discuss- > boun...@opensolaris.org] On Behalf Of Peter Taps > > As you may have heard, NetApp has a lawsuit against Sun in 2007 (and > now carried over to Oracle) for patent infringement with the zfs file > > Given this, I am wondering what you think is the future of zfs as an > open source project.
Others have already stated "Oracle won the case" in better detail than I could. So ZFS is safe in solaris/opensolaris. But some other big names (Apple) have backed down from deploying ZFS, presumably due to threats, and some others (coraid) are being sued anyway. This does reduce the number of ZFS deployments in the world, so it's probably benefitting Netapp to keep the suit alive, even if they never collect a dollar. But surprisingly, I think it's also benefitting Oracle. The lack of ZFS competition certainly helps Oracle sell sun hardware and solaris support contracts. As strongly as I feel "apple enterprise" is an oxymoron, and apple servers contribute negative value to an infrastructure, I do know a lot of people who buy / have bought them. And I think that number would be higher, if Apple were shipping ZFS. So, IMHO: COW lawsuit: Good for NetApp. Good for Oracle and solaris. Bad for ZFS like a rainy day is bad for baseball. And bad for everybody else. _______________________________________________ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
