Samsung Working With Developers To Optimize Solid State Drive Performance In Operating Systems

Samsung is working with software developers to increase the performance of Solid State Drives for computers using the Sun's ZFS file system, which the next version of OSX Server, aka Snow Leopard, can take advantage of. The way traditional HDDs handle data transfers is different than how SSDs do, and it's Samsung's goal to make sure future operating systems are optimized for SSDs as well as HDDs. The performance upgrades could mean overall operational increases for OSX-equipped Macs that use SSDs. Currently the MacBook Air is the only Mac that ships with the option, but if Apple decides to make SSDs available on all MacBooks then this development would make the SSD option more desirable than it is now. Samsung is also starting talks with Microsoft to work the same enhancements into the next version of Windows. When all major operating systems have optimized support for them, SSD could finally replace HDDs as promised. [InfoWorld via MacRumors]

Snow Leopard Putting OS X On a Diet, Applications to Shrink Dramatically

There might be more to Snow Leopard than meets the eye, as rumors have emerged outlining tremendous cuts in application size for 10.6. Mail.app will drop from 287MB to 91MB, iChat from 111MB to 52MB, and iCal from 89MB to 48MB. Cuts are practically universal, with already small apps like the 13MB Calculator, 15MB Image Capture and 22MB TextEdit each to be recoded to a svelte 2MB or less. As a whole, the Snow Leopard's Utilities folder will take up just 25% of the space that it does in 10.5. More »

Mac OS X Snow Leopard for Servers Getting ZFS

Awhile ago, there were rumors of Leopard getting Sun's clean-sheet designed file system from the future, ZFS. OS X server is getting it in Snow Leopard, according to Apple's preview page. The consumer version doesn't look to be receiving the theoretically incorruptible file sytem yet, but we can hope it'll trickle down eventually. [Apple via ZDNet]

Speculation Smashed: No ZFS in Leopard

There was a reason ZFS wasn't named-checked as one of Leopard's 10 (not so) new features at WWDC 07—despite declarations by Sun's CEO, Jonathan Schwartz, yesterday Apple denied ZFS's presence in Leopard. Put another way by Brian Croll, senior director of product marketing for OS X: "ZFS is not happening." Ouch. More »

ZFS Now Default File System in Apple's OS X Leopard

Fantastic news for nerds who keep up with file systems. Sun's just accidentally spilled the beans that OS 10.5, aka OS X Leopard, is going to be using ZFS as its default file system. ZFS replaces Journaled HFS+, Apple's current file system, and supposedly adds a bunch of improvements. More »