Re: Things that Longhorn seems to be doing right

From: Scott Robert Ladd
Date: Wed Oct 29 2003 - 23:08:59 EST


Alex Belits wrote:
There is another possibility -- that the only implementation of the
standardized indexable/searchable format that Microsoft wants to base this
system on is a horrendous resource pig, infected with inflexible
restrictions and requirements...

I suspect one motivation for Longhorn's file system is DRM, encoded into the metadata.

I don't think Hans' original message was suggesting that we clone Microsoft's new file system. Rather, my impression was that he was interested in the kind of functionality envisioned by Microsoft, and in pre-empting any conceptual patents Redmond might be planning.

It might be very interesting to peruse Microsoft's recent patent applications...

What most of XML-based formats certainly are. If further development
will blindly take this road, we will lose huge amount of flexibility in
exchange for a certain Microsoft-compatible (for a while) system of
organizing data.

I am not fond of XML in many circumstances; it is inefficient both in terms of storage and processing, and is overkill for many applications. A files system should be mean and lean, even when it implements advanced features like metadata. So I think we're in agreement that Linux should find a better path to a similar solution.

And do it soon, before Microsoft patents the concept of a file system itself!

--
Scott Robert Ladd
Coyote Gulch Productions (http://www.coyotegulch.com)
Software Invention for High-Performance Computing

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