InternetNews talks to developers and vendors about the rise of Btrfs as a successor to Ext4. Though Ext4 adds extents, Chris Mason, Btrfs developer noted that BTRFS adds a number of other features beyond that. Among those features are items like snapshotting, online file consistency checks and the ability to perform fast incremental backups. BTRFS (pronounced better FS) is currently under development in an effort led by Oracle engineer Chris Mason. With the support of Intel, Red Hat, HP, IBM, BTRFS could become the engine that brings next generation filesystem capabilities to Linux.
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Member since:2006-05-02
Interesting information. I believe you mean "externally" instead of "eternally", right? Any idea how this myth (that Windows contained BSD networking code) came about?
Member since:2007-09-08
Most of the command-line network tools that come with Windows were derived from BSD versions. So utilities like ping, traceroute, nslookup, telnet, and so forth. That's the only trace of any BSD code in the network stack of current Windows versions.
Apparently, these were originally provided by a company called Spider Systems, and were ported by Microsoft to use the Winsock API instead of the BSD sockets API.
That same company also provided the initial TCP/IP stack used in Windows NT 3.0. Apparently, this stack was basically parts of the BSD TCP/IP stack, ported to run on top of an abstraction layer. Microsoft incorporated that into NT 3.0, because they decided to include TCP/IP support far too late to develop their own.
They did develop their own before NT 3.5 was released, and that one was in use up to Windows XP. Windows Vista contains yet another new TCP/IP stack.
It's not really a myth - one version of Windows NT certainly did contain BSD network code, but it's since been replaced. Twice. There might be some remnants of it, since there's little point in throwing out working, well-tested code, but there's no way to know without looking at the source code.
Member since:2006-01-02
Yeah.. there's a pretty detailed description of it at http://www.kuro5hin.org/?op=displaystory;sid=2001/6/19/05641/7357.
The basic gist is that in pre-release versions of NT, some BSD code may have been used in boot-strapping the networking effort. This code was accessed through a wrapper which is now long-disused (and probably not even present anymore) and was entirely replaced in NT 3.5, the first externally (eternally, even) released NT, by a significantly different Microsoft stack.
Some of the userland network tools are ported bsd code (command line ftp being an example), so maybe that's the source of this rumor.
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"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run."There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International, which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world. AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday." Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's just. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many more - these companies might not be breaking any laws, but it's obvious to anyone that what they are doing is scummy.
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
Member since:
2006-01-02
Just a note on Windows TCP/IP: It's not related to any BSD or other networking stack out there. There has never been any BSD code in the networking stack in any eternally released and commonly used versions of Windows.