*BSD News Article 62478


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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.development.system
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From: ipaschke@xlan.hil.de (Ingo Paschke)
Subject: Re: The better (more suitable)Unix?? FreeBSD or Linux
Message-ID: <DMyw8D.Dy@xlan.hil.de>
Organization: private
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Date: Sun, 18 Feb 1996 10:38:37 GMT
Lines: 40
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:14606 comp.os.linux.development.system:18327

Hi!

doolitt@recycle.cebaf.gov (Larry Doolittle) writes:

>Terry Lambert (terry@lambert.org) wrote:

>: Unordered writes (the result of async writes without delay
>: ordering) are not only "arguably" unsafe, they are *provably*
>: unsafe using stochastic methods and/or relatively simple
>: mathematical models you can find in almost any textbook on
>: database theory (a file system is a type of database).

>They are only unsafe if the system crashes.  My experience
>with Linux is that it _doesn't_crash_.  

"I don't need no stinkin' seat belts or airbags in my car. It simply doesn't
crash."

>I can't speak for FreeBSD, but I can't imagaine you will tell me it's
>worse. If you care about your data, the system will be on a UPS. If your
>software is buggy and it crashes, _fix_the_bugs_. If your hardware is buggy
>and it crashes, either replace it or move your critical data to some other
>machine.  All this sync/async/ordered/log filesystem hoo-rah is interesting
>and fun, but don't lose sight of the goals:

> 1.  System runs the software you need
> 2.  System stays up forever
> 3.  System runs fast

>Everything else is ..er.. of trivial importance.

Uh oh, I think we all forgot it's that trivial: If we want to lose data, we
will, but if we don't, we won't... 

Ciao,
Ingo.
-- 
Ingo Paschke
Braunschweig, Germany
[MIME, Nextmail welcome.]