OpenZFS 3.0 Could See macOS Support & DirectIO, While ZFS For Windows Continues

[phoronix]

Phoronix: OpenZFS 3.0 Could See macOS Support & DirectIO, While ZFS For Windows Continues

The annual OpenZFS Developer Summit wrapped up yesterday with interesting talks on this open-source, cross-platform ZFS file-system implementation...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OpenZFS-3.0-Plus-Windows-Work

[skeevy420]

IMHO, the biggest takeaway is that supporting more platforms is on the to-do list. Being able to access your data no matter what your running is a great thing and is the limiting thing of most other file systems. At the end of the day it doesn't matter how great your product is if it stays limited to a niche demographic and that includes file systems stuck to specific operating systems and features to kernel versions (like with Ext4, BTRFS, NTFS3, and other Linux file systems). ZFS being out of tree is actually a blessing in disguise when looked at from that perspective since it doesn't matter your distribution or kernel version, RHEL or Arch, all you have to do is just install the DKMS package and you can ZFS away with the latest version. The same will be true of other operating systems that can't include it built-in like FreeBSD...just install your Windows or macOS program and ZFS away. That'll be a major win if/when it comes to fruition and already is for the platforms that support it.

Performance update are great and I'm not trying to disregard that, but being able to access data wherever on whatever with the same tools is the greatest. NTFS3 for shared volumes kicks ass for dual booting gamers like myself. Being able to toss that aside in lieu of quad+ booting with ZFS for my shared volumes would kick even more ass.

[jochendemuth]

Exciting development on ZFS on Win. Great engineering and great progress. Looking forward to release of this functionality for the reasons explained by skeevy420

[dragorth]

Didn't WSL 2 allow mounting Linux FS? How hard would it be to use that with OpenZFS?

[skeevy420]

Didn't WSL 2 allow mounting Linux FS? How hard would it be to use that with OpenZFS?

Not that hard for your average Phoronix user. Last time I did it the method was to compile the kernel with ZFS built-in (not as a module).

[Developer12]

Monthly reminder to the GPL trolls:

OpenZFS is licenced under a copyleft free software licence, the CDDL. It is recognized as such by GNU. [1]

This licence may be incompatible with the GPL, but so are many other free software licences. Indeed, so are the licences of many other modules, some of which being proprietary. Unlike the nvidia deriver however, there is no conceivable situation where using ZFS infringes on any of the four fundamental freedoms.

[1] https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html#CDDL

[You-]

Monthly reminder to the GPL trolls:

OpenZFS is licenced under a copyleft free software licence, the CDDL. It is recognized as such by GNU. [1]

This licence may be incompatible with the GPL, but so are many other free software licences. Indeed, so are the licences of many other modules, some of which being proprietary. Unlike the nvidia deriver however, there is no conceivable situation where using ZFS infringes on any of the four fundamental freedoms.

[1] https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html#CDDL

Timely response: It is incompatible with the GPL, which the linux kernel is licensed under. Worse, the copyright holder for ZFS is oracle, one of the most litigious companies in the world. Feel free to use it for home projects, but if you use it in a business where you make money, be pretty sure you can keep that money and not have to hand it over.

[lacek]

Timely response: It is incompatible with the GPL, which the linux kernel is licensed under. Worse, the copyright holder for ZFS is oracle, one of the most litigious companies in the world. Feel free to use it for home projects, but if you use it in a business where you make money, be pretty sure you can keep that money and not have to hand it over.

Simply using the software won't get anyone sued. Distributing may, but the party that could hypothetically sue for license violation is not Oracle, as the conflict is on the GPL side. So the party suing would be Free Software Conservancy likely on behalf of FSF.

[Space Heater]

Worse, the copyright holder for ZFS is oracle

Most of OpenZFS code is not under Oracle's copyright as everything after the fork (in ~2010) has been separate work.

[andrei_me]

How should I read ZFSin, "ZFS In" or "ZF Sin"?