Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 4th Nov 2009 16:48 UTC
Linux Linux continues to innovate in the area of file systems. It supports the largest variety of file systems of any operating system. It also provides cutting-edge file system technology. Two new file systems that are making their way into Linux include the NiLFS(2) log-structured file system and the exofs object-based storage system. Discover the purpose behind these two new file systems and the advantages that they bring.
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RE: Why all the filesystems.
by Delgarde on Wed 4th Nov 2009 20:44 UTC in reply to "Why all the filesystems."
Delgarde
Member since:
2008-08-19

I can see a new modern file system every 10 years or so. However most other OS's put there efforts elsewhere. I think Linux should too. I think it is a case that File Systems are fun to design and program. However there are areas that are much more annoying to design and code that needs to be addressed.


Right, but what do you mean, "Linux should put it's efforts elsewhere"? Linux isn't a person or organisation - it's a piece of software developed by a bunch of individuals all working for their own (or their employers) different purposes.

Reading the article, these two filesystems appear to have been contributed by companies who presumably needed new filesystems for whatever reason. So it's not exactly productive to tell those people they should have been working on something else instead.

For better or worse, that's the open-source way - people work on whatever they want to work on. It's what you get, when all of your contributors are volunteers.

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v RE[2]: Why all the filesystems.
by strcpy on Wed 4th Nov 2009 20:50 in reply to "RE: Why all the filesystems."
segedunum Member since:
2005-07-06

I'm afraid there is no disconnect between the two statements in the way that you want.

A lot of different companies contribute developers and resources to the Linux kernel and they each work on things that make sense to them, so yes, they do volunteer for projects. They cannot be forced to work on anything by any central authority.

You've tried to argue this line before, and it usually boils down to you trying to insinuate that open source development is turning to some central proprietary development model simply because some people happen to be getting paid to write open source code within the most important projects. Not only is it wrong, it's also an argument that goes absolutely nowhere.

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