A Btrfs File-System Kernel Driver For Windows

[boxie]

Why new and new filesystem formats, its some linux obsession.. What is wrong with EXT4? On Widows we are using more that 15 years ntfs and we are still ok.

The underlying NTFS filesystem has undergone quite a lot of changes in the last 15 years.

[Ericg]

Why new and new filesystem formats, its some linux obsession.. What is wrong with EXT4? On Widows we are using more that 15 years ntfs and we are still ok.

There's nothing WRONG with ext4 (AFAIK), Btrfs just shoots for a different set users. Ext4 is made to be pretty fast, but it's not made for multi-disk (it assumes you'll do raid underneath it), and it's not designed around extreme data integrity. It also doesn't support things like compression, nor was it made when solid-state drives were at the forefront of people's thoughts. If you want performance, you go ext4. If you want to use compression / integrated volume management, checksumming, etc, then use Btrfs, or if on Ubuntu then use ZFS.

Also, boxie is right. While Microsoft may have used the "NTFS" name for the last 15 years, it's gone under massive revisions.

[Hi-Angel]

Why new and new filesystem formats, its some linux obsession.. What is wrong with EXT4? On Widows we are using more that 15 years ntfs and we are still ok.

AFAIK BTRFS not quite new file system, at least not in the sense of being completely new. As I know, there were features that couldn't be included in EXT, thus making the EXT5 without breaking backward compatbility. So BTRFS could be seen as a new EXT, that is however incompatible with EXT4.

I guess, the development was primarily initiated by companies that for some reason was needed those features. I think so because most users would still ask «What's wrong with ext4?», so probably they weren't the BTRFS development target.

[jrdls]

If Microsoft is developing ReFS, what is the use-case of Btrfs on Windows?

[Hi-Angel]

If Microsoft is developing ReFS, what is the use-case of Btrfs on Windows?

You're asking the wrong question. The right one is: what is the use-case of ReFS if zoo of servers is almost completely on GNU/Linux, and the usual users would also wondering «What's wrong with NTFS?».

As for: what's the need in btrfs driver on windows at all — well, perhaps for freely sharing file between GNU/Linux and Windows? I mean, to me BTRFS on usb-stick seems to be a good idea, because it supports transparent compression. So one would want to format their usb-stick with btrfs, and still have a possibility to open that on Windows.

[liam]

I'd rather love to see ZFS in Storage Spaces. Badly.

There's always ReFs.

[W.Irrkopf]

Only minor off-topic: Is there a filesystem that can be used to share the home partition on a dual boot system Linux/OS X (including encryption)?

[theriddick]

Might install Ubuntu GNOME with this (because I want to try out wayland) and see how it goes. I have wanted to have proper access to my Linux FS in Windows for a while, and I don't really like using NTFS under Linux because it just doesn't really perform as good as EXT4, not sure on this BTRFS but hopefully its performance is on par.

[pipe13]

Only minor off-topic: Is there a filesystem that can be used to share the home partition on a dual boot system Linux/OS X (including encryption)?

Yes and no. My laptop shares an encrypted home partition between Windows 8.1 and Linux. The filesystem is unencrypted NTFS. The underlying partition is encrypted by TrueCrypt. Works very well.

[pipe13]

Woah, awesome! A file system that is not shit which can be shared between windows and linux. I'd have wanted this 3 years ago when I was starting to use Linux; before I gave up completely on Windows you know (which I did after all the shit with Windows 10 that's going on now like all of this https://i.imgur.com/iHge6RJ.jpg and their terms of service that deny you any propriety or private ownership over any content in any device running a microsoft operating system; as long as they can access those files that is, which they can in Windows 10. And I mean this is just fuckin creepy. http://arstechnica.com/information-t...s-7-8-systems/ and this is even more creepy http://www.mtv.com/news/2254238/wind...automatically/ and well, in case you want to see their terms of service I talked about, article 2 paragraph b.: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/servicesagreement/ after all this, I have finally gotten truly serious about dumping windows despite not really being fully satisfied with Linux, this just will not do.)

Now, now, Rabcor. Windows is your friend. If you actually read the MS TOS you linked, and followed their link to what actually constitutes a 'Service', you'd see Redmond claims no such thing. Whatever you keep on your computer is yours. Whatever you share on their cloud is theirs. Fair is fair. Nothing could be more clear.