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0 pointsnosequel8y ago0 comments

ZFS isn't lost. ZFS on Illumos (Smartos) and FreeBSD is alive and well.

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4 comments · 2 top-level

jedberg8y ago· 2 in thread

Sure but who owns the rights to it? That's what we mean by lost. It's locked up in a way to make it less usable.

The original ZFS engineers now work on OpenZFS, and have for almost a decade. While the base is "owned" by Oracle, most of the innovation in ZFS (and other Solaris technologies) have been done in illumos and are owned by their respective authors. While I feel empathy for the engineers who lost their jobs, modern Solaris innovation hasn't been funded by Oracle since 2010 and the OpenSolaris debacle.

jedberg8y ago

The IP has enough shadow over it that it precludes Apple from using ZFS, even though all the tech was developed outside. That's the main issue. Things are murky and is scares people.

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ece8y ago

ZFS would have been mainlined into Linux much earlier if it had been someone like Google who had bought Sun. Now, Google is pushing into hardware and deploying POWER9 servers. Not to mention the lawsuits with Oracle could have been avoided as well. But hey, atleast they got Motorola's IP portfolio.

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