Let's see, most of the modern file systems ideas were originated from UNIX vendors. You have SUN invented the NFS on its SUN OS in the early 80's, you have CMU and IBM invented the Andrew File System (AFS) on IBM's AIX, you have DEC invented the Log File System (LFS) on the DEC Ultrix. And I used to work for this company called Locus, who invented the Transparent File System and implemented or a variety of ports on all UNIX platforms. What are some of the significant ideas that were initiated by NTFS?
James, your experience of UFS must have been with the BSD based of Linux. I worked on a HP project 4 years ago, at that time, they already had a log journal file system, which makes reboot and data recovery very, very quick. I believe the new release of Linux also supports log file system now. The first Log file system was indeed implemented on UNIX (I believed it was DEC which invented it), not on NT. David Cutler might have brought that idea to use it on NTFS. Of course, I can argue with you all day that who's smarter, David Cutler, the NT pioneer or Billy Joy, SUN's CTO who invented both NFS and Java, with James Goslings. They are two of the most brilliant minds in the industry.
Sad thing is that, a friend of mine who's working in Microsoft's NT core team told me that Cutler is semi-retired because of some of the internal political struggles in Microsoft. Billy Joy, on the other hand, is working and relaxing deep in the Rocky Mountain in Colorado, and is reportedly very happy.
By the way, Solaris's file system has gone way beyond the old UFS stage. But if you asked anyone in the industry, UFS was still way ahead than his "FAT16" or "FAT32" cousin. Don't start another religious war on file system or OS. If you want to bash UNIX on those areas, don't use NT, use a REAL OS, then we can talk. DOS and Windows are crap OS, NT is maturing, but it's not there yet. |
