On Fri, 9 Aug 2002 18:12:43 +0100, Anne Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> My ext2 partitions are now ext3 - I couldn't fathom the Control Centre route,
> but the command line couldn't have been simpler.
>
> For future reference - i.e. when I move on to Mandrake 9 - I get the
> impression that there are a number of problems with some of the file systems,
> with Reiser being probably the least problem. Is this right?
I am not aware of any problems with Mandrake 9.0 specifically. I have read that
XFS doesn't like certain kernel optimisations like preempt and low-latency, but
Mandrake won't be including those anyway. I like to compile my own kernels with
these patches included (they can make a big difference to system performance),
so I avoid XFS. Otherwise, XFS appears to be a very reliable and fast
filesystem. For most normal operations, ext3 is the slowest, even with only
metadata journalling enabled (unlike the other journalling FSs, ext3 can journal
_all_ of your data, which is safer but much slower). Its strengths are in
database transaction speeds and its forward and backward compatibility with
ext2. I personally think ReiserFS is the best for home systems. It is reasonably
fast, being exceptionally speedy with small (sub-100K) files. It has had
problems in the past, but they seem to have been ironed out in the more recent
releases. JFS is very space-inefficient (each file takes about double the
space), but is arguably the fastest FS. It also has problems with fragmentation,
so you need to periodically defrag it (just like with Windows and FAT/NTFS).
Of these filesystems, ReiserFS is probably the most complex (using features like
B-trees, etc.). It is also the only journalling FS that has been designed from
scratch, the others being the continuation of preexisting FSs. Nevertheless, it
has proven to be quite robust in actual use, so I wholeheartedly recommend it.
--
Sridhar Dhanapalan
If Bill Gates had a dime for every time a Windows box crashed...
...Oh, wait a minute, he already does.
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft?
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
