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Sun exec: ZFS to be default file system in Apples’ Mac OS X Leopard
Mac Daily News ^ | 06/06/2007

Posted on 06/06/2007 10:07:52 PM PDT by Swordmaker

"Perhaps overcome with excitement (and forgetting that Apple doesn't like such pre-emptive disclosures), Sun's Jonathan Schwartz announced today at Sun event in Washington D.C. that Apple would be making ZFS 'the file system' in Mac OS 10.5 Leopard (video link, requires RealPlayer)," longofest reports for MacRumors.

In fact, this week you'll see that Apple is announcing at their Worldwide Developer Conference that ZFS has become the file system in Mac OS 10.

longofest reports, "ZFS has a long list of improvements over Apple's current file system, Journaled HFS+."

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Yes! If true — and it certainly sounds true — this is quite a big deal and qualifies as a major Leopard feature. And Windows will immediately become even more archaic, if that's even possible.

Sun Microsystems' OpenSolaris.org describes ZFS:

ZFS is a new kind of filesystem that provides simple administration, transactional semantics, end-to-end data integrity, and immense scalability. ZFS is not an incremental improvement to existing technology; it is a fundamentally new approach to data management. We've blown away 20 years of obsolete assumptions, eliminated complexity at the source, and created a storage system that's actually a pleasure to use.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: macosx; macosx105; zfs
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1 posted on 06/06/2007 10:07:56 PM PDT by Swordmaker
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To: 1234; 50mm; 6SJ7; Abundy; Action-America; af_vet_rr; afnamvet; akatel; Alexander Rubin; Amadeo; ...
Sun annouces that Mac OSX.5 Leopard will be sporting a new 128 bit file system... ZFS... which can store 18 billion billion (18.4 × 1018) times more data than current 64-bit systems. PING!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

2 posted on 06/06/2007 10:13:00 PM PDT by Swordmaker (Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE is "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE)
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To: Swordmaker
I wonder if it will run on a PPC Mac?
3 posted on 06/06/2007 10:19:57 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Swordmaker

Um, how much hardware is this thing going to require?

Exhibit A: Win Vista


4 posted on 06/06/2007 10:31:56 PM PDT by IslandJeff ("I used to care, but things have changed" - Robert Zimmerman)
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To: goldstategop

I would bet on it.


5 posted on 06/07/2007 12:00:37 AM PDT by rom (17" MacBook Pro. 30" Cinema Display. 1 Happy Programmer.)
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To: Swordmaker

Am I correct in surmising that this can have a very large impact the server market? Very large ?


6 posted on 06/07/2007 12:19:18 AM PDT by Covenantor ((Amnesty invasion - Now we know how the Czechs felt after Chamberlain's 'deal'))
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To: IslandJeff
Um, how much hardware is this thing going to require?

From what I have read, I don't think it takes much hardware to support ZFS; if anything, it is probably less complex than the current melange of layers of volume managers and filesystems. Apparently it's already been ported directly to FreeBSD, and I believe that you can also run it in some fashion under Fuse on Linux.

7 posted on 06/07/2007 2:23:58 AM PDT by snowsislander
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To: Swordmaker
These tidbits don't do justice to ZFS. The snapshotting (Time Machine), the ability to add drives to a system pool and expand its size (need another 500GB, just plug in a drive and issue a command), its Z-RAID (use two or more drives in parallel), its write-once nature, how it stores file checksums in the directory structure one directory higher than the file itself.

And how it actually can reconstruct files on failed drives or when you've had bit-rot (a problem with new large drives where data just changes for no good reason) is just flat-out amazing.

It's a dream of a filesystem. And big enough to last even the largest users for another 20 years.
8 posted on 06/07/2007 3:25:37 AM PDT by George W. Bush
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To: Swordmaker

I’d buy a mac but...

I just bought one.


9 posted on 06/07/2007 4:22:07 AM PDT by SlowBoat407 (A living insult to islam since 1959.)
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To: goldstategop
I wonder if it will run on a PPC Mac?
I think Leopard is supposed to run natively on both flavors of Mac.

I never upgraded to Tiger, and since I don't do anything more challenging on this Mac than a trivial spreadsheet, I don't actually need a shiny new computer or even a new OS. But I think at some point ya hafta find out what the noise is about . . .

Off topic a bit, Walter Mossberg's advice column in the WSJ today quotes Steve Jobs to the effect that the iPhone will not be capable of accepting third-party software out of the box on June 29 - but that "that is our intent," and he expects it to happen by the end of the year.


10 posted on 06/07/2007 4:32:24 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters except PR.)
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To: IslandJeff

What about Windows Vista? How does that relate to a Sun-developed filesystem? (If you’re referencing WinFS, it got axed.)

ZFS will actually improve system performance when doing data-intensive tasks, like loading iPhoto.


11 posted on 06/07/2007 4:39:23 AM PDT by Terpfen (It's your fault, not Pelosi's.)
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To: IslandJeff

You don’t know what you are talking about.


12 posted on 06/07/2007 4:50:51 AM PDT by MrsEmmaPeel
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To: MrsEmmaPeel; IslandJeff
Emma, you're right here.

This will have, at most, the kind of impact we see from software RAID. In fact, in an era of multicore processors, this is a perfect use for the excess CPU power that developers are having problems using efficiently.

So ZFS has come along at the right time to match up with the underused CPU power the new multicore CPUs offer.

For those who brought it up, yes, ZFS will work just fine on PPC Macs. Leopard is developed on Xcode which generates solid binaries for both CPU families (PPC and Intel). Apple will continue to support PPC for at least three more years.
13 posted on 06/07/2007 5:24:51 AM PDT by George W. Bush
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion
It's coming. BTW, cute one from that article:
A pundit as unlikely as Arianna Huffington sought out Mr. Jobs directly for advice on being the first to score a phone. (He told her to go to an AT&T store.)
*grin*
14 posted on 06/07/2007 6:01:35 AM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: George W. Bush
These tidbits don't do justice to ZFS.

Indeed. ZFS is absolutely going to rock as a filesystem. I can't wait for it to make headroads into Linux space.

Too bad MS so ruled by the NIH syndrome that they won't support more than just FAT/FAT32/NTFS.


 

15 posted on 06/07/2007 6:12:27 AM PDT by zeugma (MS Vista has detected your mouse has moved, Cancel or Allow?)
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To: goldstategop

YEs it will. File system support is a factor of the OS, not of the hardware itself.


16 posted on 06/07/2007 7:29:29 AM PDT by TheBattman (I've got TWO QUESTIONS for you....)
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To: IslandJeff

Win Vista is hardware?


17 posted on 06/07/2007 7:30:52 AM PDT by TheBattman (I've got TWO QUESTIONS for you....)
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To: Swordmaker
See ZFS for more information about the filesystem.

18 posted on 06/07/2007 7:55:47 AM PDT by Uri’el-2012 (you shall know that I, YHvH, your Savior, and your Redeemer, am the Elohim of Ya'aqob. Isaiah 60:16)
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To: Swordmaker

“actually a pleasure to use” — that goes for anything that doesn’t lose files. If the small files are stored in their actual size, rather than some system minimum, that will be an improvement. :’)


19 posted on 06/07/2007 8:05:05 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Time heals all wounds, particularly when they're not yours. Profile updated May 31, 2007.)
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To: MrsEmmaPeel

Why hello to you, too. Which is why I ASKED.


20 posted on 06/07/2007 9:28:51 AM PDT by IslandJeff ("I used to care, but things have changed" - Robert Zimmerman)
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