(no title)
vvhn | 9 years ago
What operating systems describe tremselves as being "compatible with Apple devices"
> Since the older versions of macOS (OSX) don't support APFS, only HFS+, this means Apple and others will also have to continue supporting HFS+.
Who else actually "supports" HFS+ ? Sure there are linux "ports" based on the spec but nobody claims them as being "supported". Apple would have had to continue supporting HFS+ whether they chose to implement ZFS, btrfs or HAMMER.
>It just seems wasteful of everyone's time to me.
I don't know how Apple writing their own filesystem is wasteful of anybody else's time ( except possibly Apple's and/or Disk utility software for vendors for OS X)
>Also: https://xkcd.com/927/
The standard is the interface ( POSIX / SUS ) and unless APFS breaks that how is this applicable ?
idorosen|9 years ago
I was referring to the Linux kernel modules implementing HFS+ and other Apple FSes.
> Who else actually "supports" HFS+ ? Sure there are linux "ports" based on the spec but nobody claims them as being "supported".
Yes, by support I meant other developers who want to be able to read and write to devices in APFS format.
> Apple would have had to continue supporting HFS+ whether they chose to implement ZFS, btrfs or HAMMER.
Yes, Apple would have to continue supporting HFS+, but other kernel developers would not have to port yet another filesystem (APFS) with all of its own quirks; and, who knows, maybe it would be less work for Apple to inherit ZFS/btrfs/HAMMER/some other filesystem's solutions to some of the same problems they're trying to solve from scratch here. My point was more that by reinventing the wheel to implement some of these features, they've created not just more work for themselves potentially, but more for the open source kernel development community as well in the long run.
> I don't know how Apple writing their own filesystem is wasteful of anybody else's time ( except possibly Apple's and/or Disk utility software for vendors for OS X)
APFS will find its way to external HDDs/SSDs/flash drives, etc., then in order to read those filesystems someone else will have to port it to any other devices/readers of that device/FS.
> The standard is the interface ( POSIX / SUS ) and unless APFS breaks that how is this applicable ?
I didn't mention POSIX, VFS, or filesystem _interfaces_. The analogy to the XKCD strip was that we already had N filesystems that have a large subset of (or in some cases superset of) the features of APFS as of right now, now we have N+1 complex filesystems to contend with and port and interoperate with in other kernels/OSes (mainly Linux + non-Darwin BSDs).
This may just be the price of progress, which is fine. I think it'll be fantastic if Apple makes progress in this area and improves upon the work of others. The developer seemed to be ignoring history so as not to "taint" himself (did he mean IP/legally tainted?), which is slightly worrying to me.
I hope Apple open sources their implementation under a BSD/GPL dual license to make it easier for others to port it directly into other kernels, rather than having to reimplement it themselves.