ZFS / OpenZFS update please?

dcnblues · 07-30-2017, 01:37 AM

Trying to learn linux. I think I will dump my existing setup for Mint as I think I prefer KDE / Plasma. I also YEARN for the efficiencies of ZFS.

I've been researching for a fair bit, but still don't have a handle on ZFS on Linux. It seems that:

-ZFS, and not OpenZFS is available on Ubuntu, but no other distros. So some deal with Oracle had to happen, yes? And functionally, this is superior to OpenZFS? I would love someone to explain the Linux politics of it to me like I was five.
-You can, or cannot try to install the filesystem on other distributions (like Mint?). A short summary of what has happened and the legal status would also be welcome.

Many thanks. I did search and read what relevant threads I could find, but it wasn't much.

Ztcoracat · 07-30-2017, 03:52 AM

Quote:

So some deal with Oracle had to happen, yes?

Most likely yes.

Looking here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ZFS

It would seem to indicate that if you can install ZFS on a Ubuntu system than you should be able to install ZFS on any Ubuntu based system.

Quote:

I would love someone to explain the Linux politics of it to me like I was five.

I'll leave that to others as I don't get into politics. Sorry:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Reference/ZFS
https://www.reddit.com/r/zfs/comment...at_solaris_or/
https://askubuntu.com/questions/9026...t-environments

List of operating systems supporting ZFS (end of page)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS#Li...supporting_ZFS

jlliagre · 07-31-2017, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcnblues

-ZFS, and not OpenZFS is available on Ubuntu, but no other distros.

This is incorrect, Ubuntu ZFS is based on ZoL (ZFS on Linux) which is an implementation of OpenZFS.

Quote:

So some deal with Oracle had to happen, yes?

OpenZFS is released under the CDDL. Ubuntu's lawyers concluded they had right to include ZFS with Ubuntu and that no deal was required.

Note that Oracle Linux doesn't provides ZFS on Linux or Oracle ZFS either. Btrfs is available and supported instead.

syg00 · 07-31-2017, 06:13 PM

Many years ago, I was at a conference where a (large) user presented on the benefits they saw in using ZFS. Sounded so good, I decided I'd better look at opensolaris - that and dtrace.
Then Oracle came along and screwed the world. At about the same time Chris was letting it be known btrfs was available for testing. Been using it ever since. Was a bit rough around the edges early on, but now it all I need from a filesystem. Including RAID5/6 (which I've been using successfully for years) recent fixes that should assuage concerns with that.