[TUHS] FreeBSD behind the times? (was: Favorite unix design principles?)

[Will Senn]

On 2/5/21 8:55 PM, Larry McVoy wrote:
> I'm gonna call Bill tomorrow and get his take again, that's Bill Moore
> one of the two main guys who did ZFS.
>
> This whole thread is sort of silly.  There are the users of ZFS who love
> it for what it does for them.  I have no argument with them.  Then there
> are the much smaller, depressingly so, group of people who care about OS
> design that think ZFS took a step backwards.
>
> I think Dennis might have stepped in here, if he was still with us, and
> had some words.
>
> I think Dennis would have brought us back to lets talk about the kernel
> and what is right.  ZFS is useful, no doubt, but it is not right from
> a kernel guy's point of view.
>
> I miss Dennis.

Larry,

Now, after the last 50 emails or so on this topic, I get it :). At 
least, I understand that technical decision were made in creating ZFS 
that were likely ill considered, the impact of those changes dubbed 
insignificant, or even possibly sound design principles ignored. It's 
debatable whether or not these decisions were deliberately contrary to 
good OS design, but I appreciate your and the other experts hanging in 
there and explaining your perspectives. I'm a systems guy, so a lot of 
the detailed OS discussions go over my head, but after enough of them, 
it kinda makes sense. At least, now, I'll pay closer attention to the 
ZFS developer list discussions :).

Will