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a New File System "WinFS" Longhorn's storage syste


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To avoid any confusion, WinFS is NOT a File System, but rather a service that rides on top of NTFS and provides a better way or organizing and retriving information.

And......actually this is being thrown out of the release of Longhorn. :D

Well, it'll be available for a beta download, and available for release with Longhorn's Server release.

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It is a filesystem. It allows you to throw files INTO it and gives you read/write IO to it. Just because the filestreams are stored on NTFS in the backend doesn't mean anything, all IO accesses go thru the WinFS driver. Later versions can be written as real filesystem instead of a meta filesystem.

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It is a filesystem. It allows you to throw files INTO it and gives you read/write IO to it. Just because the filestreams are stored on NTFS in the backend doesn't mean anything, all IO accesses go thru the WinFS driver. Later versions can be written as real filesystem instead of a meta filesystem.

Thought WinFS was just an indexing/database/search add-on to NTFS?

Anyone got a link to this stuff?

Thanks,

BK

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http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-5090584.html

One of the most significant enhancements to Longhorn is a data storage system called WinFS, technology designed to make information easier to find and view. Clearing up long-standing confusion, a Microsoft senior vice president said that WinFS will work with--not replace--the existing file system in Windows, called NTFS, when WinFS debuts in late 2005 or 2006.

WinFS "uses NTFS," Bob Muglia, senior vice president of Microsoft's enterprise storage and enterprise management divisions, told CNET News.com. "We built on top. NTFS does what it does incredibly well."

Successful co-existence of different file systems is important to ensuring a clean--and potentially quicker--transition to Longhorn, analysts say. A new file system that breaks with the storage system in Windows PCs today could be disruptive to end users. Also, Longhorn applications could encounter compatibility problems with older Windows applications, causing problems for commercial software providers.

NTFS is only one component of the revamped storage system in WinFS. Another key building block is the querying capabilities of Microsoft's SQL Server relational database, according to Microsoft. WinFS also will incorporate the data labeling capabilities of Extensible Markup Language (XML), Muglia said.

"Think of WinFS as pulling together relational database technology, XML database technology, and file streaming that a file system has," he said. "It's a (storage) format that is agnostic, that is independent of the application."

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WinFS is more or less a fullblown objectified database. You can define objects by schemas and like that store any type of information in there. It additionally allows you to define fields in a schema as filestream, which will then spawn a NTFS filestream for each field declared as such. Then there's a GenericFile schema, which as the name suggests, acts as a normal file, which can be accessed in the \\localmachine\DefaultStore\[folder\...]\filename.ext format.

Metadata store isn't that correct, because the "metadata" is accompanied by the actual binary data, which defies the point of metadata. If you have an audio file item contains all relevant data in seperate fields, plus a filestream field that contains the binary data, e.g. a MP3 stream.

It's not just a dumb indexing service.

Maybe later on they'll merge full filesystem functionality into the WinFS driver, which would cause filestreams stored inside the datafile and WinFS being used as native diskformat. I've heard somewhere that this might be the plan for WinFS V2.

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WinFS is more or less a fullblown objectified database.

I'm just goin' off what the Microsoft dude said.

It's a database that indexes the file system to optimize it for searching. It's an add-on that simply uses the NTFS file system as a base to build its index from.

I don't remember anyone saying it was a dumb indexing system, by the way.

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Well, other Microsoft guys, you know, the type actually working in the WinFS team, pretty much say the same as I do. If you want to check that up, just check the recent threads on Channel9. Or maybe you go read the WinFS documentation on MSDN (if it's still there) and get the clue yourself that it's not a stupid indexer helper. Whatever suits you.

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Well, other Microsoft guys, you know, the type actually working in the WinFS team, pretty much say the same as I do. If you want to check that up, just check the recent threads on Channel9. Or maybe you go read the WinFS documentation on MSDN (if it's still there) and get the clue yourself that it's not a stupid indexer helper. Whatever suits you.

So the official microsoft spokesman was simply 100% wrong?

I just posted links and quotes. No reason you can't do the same...

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Uhm, Sam Druker is an architect in the WinFS team?

so? Does not mean he speaks officially for MS. WinFS is changing, even stated by Bill Gates, from its original vision. It may not end up as they intended. In fact, the next line down says it sits right on top of NTFS anyway.

Until I see something official from MS, I just plan to keep my mind open and see what happens. After all, SP2 lacked things it was supposed to have. Things change.

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Here is the quote from the post after the other:

Manip2: WinFS is a layer on top of NTFS, not a replacement. You aren't going to lose any data, it will just be a wonderful layer for developers and WinFS-aware applications (e.g. Windows Explorer, Outlook Express, and ISV apps).

So I think I'll just wait until I see stuff from MS that is official. :)

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You know, like... Architect > Speaksperson? Former one codes, latter one talks only.

But I see it's futile to discuss.

In fact, the next line down says it sits right on top of NTFS anyway.

I'm glad you missed the parts about non-files.

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You know, like... Architect > Speaksperson? Former one codes, latter one talks only.

But I see it's futile to discuss.

I'm glad you missed the parts about non-files.

Guess I'm being stubborn. But I'm not trying to be mean, so hope all is cool... :cool:

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