

ZFS tutorial part 1 - kqr2
http://flux.org.uk/howto/solaris/zfs_tutorial_01

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liuliu
When could Sun at last make ZFS available on Linux? Stuck on license is stupid
or intentional.

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newt0311
Seconded. I am waiting for the day that linux has something comparable or gets
over its license mania.

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litewulf
That license "mania" is important. Just because it restricts you from doing
certain things you wish you could doesn't mean the license itself is wrong.

RMS once commented that he used OSS not because its better _right now_ , but
that by using it (and of course, supporting its development), OSS would be
better _someday_.

I guess if you're a startup and trying to be lean and agile and pragmatic, it
kind of sucks, but as a human being, who gets to make decisions where one
don't need to optimize for ROI, I think its important to recognize what this
is: an opportunity. Improve existing tools, maybe help convince Sun to change
their license, learn BSD, any of a number of options.

This isn't because Linux is a license nazi or anything. GNU (and with it,
Linux) exists for a number of reasons, but I think at least some of the people
working on it push it because of the way the license operates.

In short: feature, not a bug.

(PS: this isn't an attack on you; I'm just kind of frustrated that people
always have this complaint about ZFS. Sun made ZFS, and open sourced it out of
their own good graces. Linus and hundreds and thousands of other people made
Linux, and distribute that source out of their own good graces. This isn't a
"well why don't you write a patch" rant, as much as it is licenses and laws
and all that boring stuff exists for a very important reason, and its
important to be mindful of the effects it has on you as a human and as a
programmer. If you don't like the way it works, please try to participate in
the democratic process and make your voice heard through other means as well.)

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thesethings
I'm wondering if anybody here at HN is using ZFS for a file server (and pretty
much nothing else). Like many others, I'm so impressed with ZFS, but otherwise
have little incentive to switch over the rest of my computing life from Linux
to (Open)Solaris. However, ZFS is so cool, I have many "appliance" uses in
mind, from real business-y apps, to simple home networked storage. Anybody
making frankenstacks out there with Linux and ZFS?

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newt0311
You can still use ZFS on linux using fuse so unless you want to boot off of
it, you should be able to use it for any file server needs when it becomes
stable.

A better option would be using freeBSD with ZFS. FreeBSD has much better
support for ZFS as they don't care about the licensing issue (though the
support is still experimental). Since freeBSD is (in the marginal case) more
stable and secure than linux, it would make more sense for a home server
anyway.

~~~
thesethings
Thanks for the fuse info. (Point for you!) I didn't know about that. As for
FreeBSD... I actually know OpenSolaris better than FreeBSD, so if I left Linux
altogether, I'd probably just use it. I guess I'm especially curious about
people who are using standalone (Open)Solaris ZFS fileservers, and how they're
accessing it from non Solaris OS's.

~~~
litewulf
Caveat: FUSE is very slow for ZFS. Use it only to check out the features, but
if you run it (hypothetically) on something important, be mindful of the
limitations.

