Microsoft Corp. is considering bundling in the next version of Windows a pared-down version of its next-generation SQL Server database and the relational file system that goes with it. “The inclusion of a version of an SQL-based file system and engine will be one of the most killer features Microsoft has ever introduced to the PC operating system,” the Microsoft partner said. But the storage technology in question allows “queries both with relational syntax and through XML-type syntax,” Ressler of Microsoft said. “There’s source technology under development by teams across the company.” Read the rest of the article at ExtremeTech.
Microsoft Adds Database Capabilities to Next Windows’ Filesystem
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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And Apple is dumping metadata functionality from OS X 🙁
/me wants his BeOS.
I’m not sure on that, but is the BFS (native BeOS filesystem) didn’t have this capability since it’s beginning ?
BFS is a database-like filesystem. It is not a real database nor it pretends to be one. Old BeOS versions (Up to DR8, I guess) had a real database as a filesystem, but the performance was not acceptable to it was dumped in favour of BFS.
-Bruno
Yes, it has. Microsoft is innovating.
Now, this really is a killer feature. And with a GUI that looks more and more like KDE, I’ll soon dump free OSes to go back to Windows.
Pff
We have a large picture database at work for products photos, and I gotta say SQL Server 2000 is goddamn fast at retrieving blobs/binary data. And it’ll accelerate even more when you remove the NTFS filesystem below it. But I dunno how MS is gonna handle the transaction log thingy when used as filesystem. I don’t wanna spend e.g. 10-20% of my diskspace for the transaction log.
“queries both with relational syntax and through XML-type syntax”
parse the sql select to check if it’s correct
-> huge slowdown
implement stored procedures for standard filesystem operations
-> still a lot more code to parse than having native and direct file system access
xml style interface
-> can i script that via javascript or c# ? … welcome virii … “oh that popup just killed my filesystem”
So glad they’ve learned how to read from someone else’s white papers again. Sounds like they are following ReiserFS down the path that they created. Reiser has several papers which are available which cover this pretty well. They also have made it known that part of their business model is to customize ReiserFS to allow for this and many other relational aspects to be embedded within the FS.
As for the 10-20% of your diskspace comment, please remember than NTFS already is a journaling file system so like it or not, part of your disk space is already being used for journaling. On top of that, I know that the current release of XP added an additional journal to NTFS (I don’t recall what for — sorry — learned this while talking with the linux NTFS kernel hacker). So now, either they’ll figure out how to use one of the existing journals or NTFS will have to maintain three journals for filesystem activity. Ouch.
And while we are talking about journaled FS’s, one of the cool things about XFS is that you can place your FS journal on another drive/controller/partition allowing for much higher I/O rates.
Hmm, what else can they integrate now? Start Menu replaced by MS Flight Simulator, for easier navigation!
NTFS journaling max size is 64megs AFAIK.
10% of 60gig are 6gig.
10% of 240gig (my personal array) would be 24gig spent on a transaction log.
I wouldnt want to spent these. OTOH it would save your ass on a small-to-medium disk failure.
Have to say, it’ll be a long time before I’m sure, but this does sound like a good idea.. at present you get the option of incompletely journalled and slow NTFS, or fast, insecure FAT32.. while Linux users have ext3 and Reiser.
A version of windows with a stable, reliable filesystem would be a big step forward…
( I am hoping also that now windows has gone NT, the big system requirements hike between releases will be a thing of the past… I dont really see PCs needing to get much faster just to support the operational requirements of an OS )
wow. ms just catching up? i’ve had a db as my filesystem for years on my AS400 at work. there is no FS, its only the DB! heh.
… this:
http://technet.oracle.com/products/ifs/content.html
Seems you can get it for free as long as you sign up with them, interesting.
I like the License Terms
ELIGIBILITY EXPORT RESTRICTIONS
– I am not a citizen, national or resident of, and am not under the control of, the government of: Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Syria, nor any other country to which the United States has prohibited export.
– I will not download or otherwise export or re-export the Programs, directly or indirectly, to the above mentioned countries nor to citizens, nationals or residents of those countries.
– I am not listed on the United States Department of Treasury lists of Specially Designated Nationals, Specially Designated Terrorists, and Specially Designated Narcotic Traffickers, nor am I listed on the United States Department of Commerce Table of Denial Orders.
– I will not download or otherwise export or re-export the Programs, directly or indirectly, to persons on the above mentioned lists.
– I will not use the Programs for, and will not allow the Programs to be used for, any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, for the development, design, manufacture or production of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction.
lol Now if you don’t meet the terms of that license agreement, what are the chances you’ll even care about it?
LOL … does anyone fitting in the above description is the kind of person to read a full license attentively, and then obey to it?
again: LOL
I’m sick and tired of microsoft copying features from my operating system project.
Kaos has 3 times as many new features and far less codebloat than MS longhorn or farsite ever will.
Kaos uses a journaled FS with XML database to handle MIME filetypes.
A full list of features is available on http://neural.net.nz
Tell me if you think MS is behind the times, or if there is anything you want.
neural.net.nz is b0rken