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Chris Jacob
From what I've heard, Apple dropped ZFS because Sun couldn't guarantee support of it (the "private license" part), now that it has been bought by Oracle. A file system is way too important to leave to another company to decide your fate. Apple wanted to guarantee it was protected if it decided to completely invest in ZFS. #leopard
1. Sun is currently in the middle of litigation with NetApp over ZFS (hence the "indemnification" issues).
2. Sun is soon to be owned by Oracle, which is in the midst of developing BTRFS - an open source file-system with many of ZFS's strengths and lacking a few of the weaknesses. Some feel BTRFS will be the default LINUX file system before too long.
3. BTRFS is not yet finished - which means it's not yet ready for a commercial OS, but also leaves room for tweaking and adding before it is "final".
4. Apple wants a modern file system now, but will _need_ a modern file system soon.
5. Jobs and Ellison are friends.
I'm guessing that Apple has abandoned ZFS for BTRFS, saving them a potential lawsuit (if NetApp wins or settles) and allowing them to increase their interoperability with future *nix distros. We'll know for sure if Apple employees start popping up on the BTRFS mailing lists... #leopard
As much as it pains me to defend Apple here, a lack of willingness to share wasn't the issue. From the cited mailing list Apple wanted a license "with appropriate technical support and indemnification". Technical support and indemnification are required for something as important as a filesystem. I have to give credit to Apple's legal counsel or whomever for making that call.
If true, knowing that ZFS is supposedly an outstanding file system, could we interpret Apple's need for a "private license" as being bad for us consumers, or does this ultimately not matter? I am not certain how I feel about this information, if it is true. #leopard
10/25/09
10/25/09
2. Sun is soon to be owned by Oracle, which is in the midst of developing BTRFS - an open source file-system with many of ZFS's strengths and lacking a few of the weaknesses. Some feel BTRFS will be the default LINUX file system before too long.
3. BTRFS is not yet finished - which means it's not yet ready for a commercial OS, but also leaves room for tweaking and adding before it is "final".
4. Apple wants a modern file system now, but will _need_ a modern file system soon.
5. Jobs and Ellison are friends.
I'm guessing that Apple has abandoned ZFS for BTRFS, saving them a potential lawsuit (if NetApp wins or settles) and allowing them to increase their interoperability with future *nix distros. We'll know for sure if Apple employees start popping up on the BTRFS mailing lists... #leopard
10/25/09
10/25/09
Not very open source friendly, but well within their realm of legal rights.
10/25/09
06/30/09
06/30/09
MILFS
06/30/09