Filed under: WWDC, Apple, Leopard
No ZFS by default for Leopard
Remember when Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun, told an audience that OS X would be sporting ZFS as the file system of choice and that we would find out all about it at WWDC? It would seem no one told Apple that, as the Stevenote came and went with nary a mention of ZFS or Sun. InformationWeek caught up with Brian Croll, Apple's senior director of product marketing for Mac OS X, and asked about ZFS on the Mac. Croll said, "ZFS is not happening," and that HFS+ is the default.It is unclear if Leopard will still support ZFS as an option, but it is clear that the default is still HSF+.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
Update: ZFS is still an option in Leopard, it is just not the default. I've updated the headline to reflect this.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Marky said 3:56PM on 6-12-2007
That is a very big shame. ZFS is THE file system going forward.
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towb said 4:04PM on 6-12-2007
I don't think New Steve would yank a feature because someone scooped it. Probably a misunderstanding on Schwartz' part.
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solipsism said 4:21PM on 6-12-2007
Schwartz misspoke. That is it. Nothing more to it.
To think ZFS was going to be the deafalt file system for Leopard is just dumb. First, it will be an option for a round (maybe two) and then announced for OS X Server before appearing in the consumer market.
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Alex said 4:31PM on 6-12-2007
@2: Ohh doesn't he. Remember the ATI deal? Bwhahahahahahaha
ATI suffers wrath of Jobs
A leak from chip maker ATI Technologies that revealed details of Apple's unannounced Mac models has enraged Apple management and interrupted the promotion of ATI products by the Mac maker, sources told MacCentral.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/emergingtech/0,1000000183,2080337,00.htm
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Hugin777 said 4:36PM on 6-12-2007
I really look forward to a prioritized IO pipeline.. That's the killer feature of ZFS IMHO.
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DrWho said 5:20PM on 6-12-2007
Before we get too carried away with conspiracy theories concerning concerning Jobs being ticked and all lets remember that developers at the WWDC have Leopard beta dvds in their hands, no way could this have been removed as suggested at such a late stage and the beta dvds still created on time.
More than likely this Sun chappie didn't get the memo (but did get an email summonsing him to 1 Infinite Loop for a hairdryer session).
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Tutor said 4:55PM on 6-12-2007
"Update: ZFS is still an option in Leopard, it is just not the default. I've updated the headline to reflect this."
"No ZFS by default" could also mean ZFS to be not part of the distribution at all. It could also mean to be a possible choice for a boot partition. Would be great if you could clarify the situation. Thanks.
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David said 4:56PM on 6-12-2007
Is there any word on having the ability to convert a partition from HFS+ to ZFS?
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Matt Deatherage said 5:03PM on 6-12-2007
How about updating the article to say "HFS Plus" (or "+", if you have to) instead of "HSF+"?
Or head over to http://www.macjournals.com and get a free trial of MWJ and get 15 pages, published before the keynote, explaining how ZFS actually works and why it's not going to be the default file system on any desktop or portable PC this decade? (Hint: it eats disk space like candy and requires extra CPU power, both of which would be very bad for notebooks, Apple's biggest computer segment.)
It doesn't, and can't, explain why everyone bought this ZFS story hook, line, and sinker even without anyone giving a single reason why HFS Plus needs to be "replaced" - other than the implicit /. argument that it can't be any good if Apple made it.
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artifex said 11:39PM on 6-12-2007
Maybe it'll be hidden away like X11 client is.
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JeffDM said 12:02AM on 6-13-2007
Alex, in the ATI case, it's just a card that can be swapped. In the case of ZFS, it takes a *lot* of work on the part of the OS developer to integrate it into an operating system. Apple throwing that much work away because some other party spoke too soon would be lunacy.
Anyway, I am fine with making ZFS an option. IIRC, it does have some advantage with a single drive system, but really, most of the benefits are with large multi-drive systems.
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Mark Benson said 2:57AM on 6-13-2007
It was fairly clear to me at least it probably wasn't going to be the default. I mean does anyone know if it even supports booting in OS X?
ZFS root booting is only in it's early stages on OpenSolaris but works, with bugs (some of which are the GRUB bootloader not the FS itself - a non-issue on Macs). If Apple and Sun have got it woreking successfully it's gonna be huge.
Also a bootable port of ZFS that is supported by EFI will act to Sun's benefit as they are prepping some Intel hardware at this time and I can't really believe they'd go with a BIOS over EFI if they were given the choice - Sun practically invented the widespread use of extendable firmware systems with OpenBoot. That of course would also meant they'd have a vested interest in the mechanisms Apple use to boot Windows an Linux on EFI also, as they support the sue of both on their x86 servers.
When I start to think about it this Sun/Apple alliance makes a lot of sense from both company's POVs.
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dataplume said 7:42PM on 6-14-2007
I just wanted to clarify that if you actually watch the video of Jonathan Schwartz CEO of Sun he never said that Apple intended to use ZFS as the default files system only that Apple has worked closely with Sun to implement ZFS in the latest version of there OS.
I also want to point out that it wouldn't be wise for apple to jump ship to ZFS so suddenly, rather Apple will need to wait until the Intel transition is further along in its process. I feel pretty confident that Apple will choose to change the current default file system and that it will most likely occur in the next major OS update. It will be much easier for Apple to support a completely overhauled file system on a single more unified platform which should be achieved by 2010 roughly about the time apple will be ready to ship its next OS.
I recommend that you guys hold your horses seeing how the current iteration of Mac OS can't even fully realize the power of ZFS and that adding support ZFS is a step the right direction.
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