Surprise : Microsoft releases code for open source

In a move Microsoft releases the 20,000 lines of codes to the Linux community. The code will allow th Linux kernel to run with enhanced permissions and device access when used with Hyper-V virutalization technology. The aim is clear that it want to adapt the Hyper-V. But any ways its big step by Microsoft that it gives its code to Linux Community.

ZFS - A new approach new system

A file system used by OpenSolaris provides simple adminstration, transactional semantics, end-to-end data integrity, and immense scalability.

ZFS Features:

• Pooled Storage Model
• Always consistent state
• Protection from data corruption
• Live data scrubbing
• Instantaneous snapshots and clones
• Fast native back up and restore
• Higly scalable
• Buit in compression
• Simplified adminstration model

Lets see what it means

ZFS presents a pooled storage model that completely eliminates the concept of volumes and the associated problems of partitions, provisioning, wasted bandwidth and stranded storage. Thousands of file systems can draw from a common storage pool, each one consuming only as much space as it actually needs. The combined I/O bandwidth of all devices in the pool is available to all filesystems at all times.

All operations are copy-on-write transactions, so the on-disk state is always valid. There is no need to fsck(1M) a ZFS file system, ever. Every block is checksummed to prevent silent data corruption, and the data is self-healing in replicated (mirrored or RAID) configurations. If one copy is damaged, ZFS detects it and uses another copy to repair it.

ZFS introduces a new data replication model called RAID-Z. It is similar to RAID-5 but uses variable stripe width to eliminate the RAID-5 write hole (stripe corruption due to loss of power between data and parity updates). All RAID-Z writes are full-stripe writes. There's no read-modify-write tax, no write hole, and — the best part — no need for NVRAM in hardware. ZFS loves cheap disks.

ZFS provides unlimited constant-time snapshots and clones. A snapshot is a read-only point-in-time copy of a filesystem, while a clone is a writable copy of a snapshot. Clones provide an extremely space-efficient way to store many copies of mostly-shared data such as workspaces, software installations, and diskless clients.

ZFS backup and restore are powered by snapshots. Any snapshot can generate a full backup, and any pair of snapshots can generate an incremental backup. Incremental backups are so efficient that they can be used for remote replication — e.g. to transmit an incremental update every 10 seconds.

There are in ZFS. You can have as many files as you want; full 64-bit file offsets; unlimited links, directory entries, snapshots, and so on.

ZFS provides built-in compression. In addition to reducing space usage by 2-3x, compression also reduces the amount of I/O by 2-3x. For this reason, enabling compression actually makes some workloads go faster.

In addition to file systems, ZFS storage pools can provide volumes for applications that need raw-device semantics. ZFS volumes can be used as swap devices, for example. And if you enable compression on a swap volume, you now have compressed virtual memory.

Fedora 11: Reign Out

Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that showcases the latest in free and open source software. Fedora 11 continues the Fedora Project's tradition of the Four Foundation: Freedom, Friends, Features, First. Freedom represents dedication to free software and content.

Fedora as we all know is always free for anyone to use, modify, and distribute. It is built by people across the globe who work together as a community: the Fedora Project.

Whats new in the Fedora 11

1. Default ext4 filesystem.

2. 20 Second Startup

3. Latest Gnome, KDE and XFCE

4. Presto : A yum plugin that reduces bandwidth consumption drastically by downloading only binary differences between updates

5. Openchange for interoperability with Microsoft Exchange

6. Firefox 3.5 and Thunderbird 3 latest pre-releases are available

7. Python 2.6

8. Window Cross Compiler : Build and test full-featured Windows programs, from the comfort of the Fedora system, without needing to use Windows.

Helpful links

Download Fedora 11

Screenshot Fedora 11

Screencast Fedroa 11