
Apple rolls out its new file system in iOS 10.3 beta - phr4ts
https://www.neowin.net/news/apple-rolls-out-its-new-file-system-in-ios-103-beta
======
baldfat
HFS+ has been horrible and needed to be addressed years ago.

In the words of Linus "Possibly the worst file system ever."

[http://www.cio.com/article/2868393/linus-torvalds-apples-
hfs...](http://www.cio.com/article/2868393/linus-torvalds-apples-hfs-is-
probably-the-worst-file-system-ever.html)

I had hope of ZFS continuing but APFS has some good and bad items in it. The
opinion is a developer of ZFS on the new APFS.
[https://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/06/a-zfs-developers-
analy...](https://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/06/a-zfs-developers-analysis-of-
the-good-and-bad-in-apples-new-apfs-file-system/)

------
citrusui
I'm on the iOS 10.3 beta, and for the most part, my iPhone 7 feels faster.
Whether or not that is because of the new filesystem is unknown, but it is a
welcome change nonetheless.

So far, I've yet to find out if the iPhone filesystem hierarchy has changed.
According to crash logs, apps still launch from /Applications, processes from
/usr and /var and so on. For some reason I expected it to change... I now
realize it is based on the old UNIX structure, with of course Apple's
modifications.

------
therealmarv
Make backups... changing a file system on such a big user base seems
incredible scary for me. Kudos to Apple if it always goes well.

~~~
gdavisson
Keep in mind, this is being done in a seed release to developers. I don't have
any inside information, but I'd expect it to be a while (i.e. iOS 11 and/or
macOS 10.13 at the earliest) before APFS becomes the default format. My guess
is that they're trying to get some broader experience with APFS from a group
that's relatively small (compared to the deployed base) and relatively used to
dealing with and reporting bugs. In short: it's a beta test.

~~~
soneil
I would actually be very surprised if this doesn't land in 10.3 on release.
It'd be very, very unusual for them to diverge (especially since converting
apfs to hfs live doesn't work).

On the other hand, iOS seems like the perfect place to go live first - all
filesystem access is by apple, or via blessed APIs - it should present the
fewest edge-cases.

~~~
tinus_hn
Also Apple has experience with backup-and-restore upgrades on iOS, which are
impractical on the Mac. If I remember correctly iOS 7 also required a full
restore.

------
overcast
I've been pretty excited about this since APFS was announced, but I think I'll
hold off on the first beta release on my phone. Let the potential hysteria
blow over first.

