Mr. McVoy: In theory, I agree with your concerns about changing ext2/ext3, but stability ought not to be the reason to never improve things. With regard to ReiserFS, I don't see why allowing it to be installed that way, means it must be a supported configuration. RH could easily simply allow you to install in that manner, but support it via their technical support. I believe this choice was made, simply to promote ext3, not out of the need of users. Mandrake has its own set of issues, but I prefer RedHat for some other reasons, just think it could be improved if it allowed this function. Very Respectfully, Stuart Blake Tener, IT3 (E-4), USNR-R, N3GWG Beverly Hills, California VTU 1904G (Volunteer Training Unit) stuart@bh90210.net west coast: (310)-358-0202 P.O. Box 16043, Beverly Hills, CA 90209-2043 east coast: (215)-338-6005 P.O. Box 45859, Philadelphia, PA 19149-5859 Telecopier: (419)-715-6073 fax to email gateway via www.efax.com (it's free!) JOIN THE US NAVY RESERVE, SERVE YOUR COUNTRY, AND BENEFIT FROM IT ALL. Monday, February 04, 2002 12:13 PM -----Original Message----- From: Larry McVoy [mailto:lm@bitmover.com] Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 11:59 AM To: IT3 Stuart Blake Tener, USNR-R Cc: 'Stephen C. Tweedie'; ext3-users@redhat.com Subject: Re: 2GB of Waste? How can it be? On Mon, Feb 04, 2002 at 11:50:24AM -0800, IT3 Stuart Blake Tener, USNR-R wrote: > I understand that modifying ext2/ext3 absent backwards > compatibly is a big deal, but I think adding that function would be a > wonderful thing. That sentence suggsts that you *don't* know that it would be a big deal. Let me explain "big deal" in more concise terms: "big deal" == "lots of bugs" A file system is more than the on disk format, it is also the collection of tools and knowledge that understands that on disk format. You break that format and all of a sudden all sorts of things you didn't consider will cease to work. > I also would like to see RH 7.2 be able to install into a > ReiserFS filesystem (or any type of filesystem with Linux, Mandrake > allows this), and think it is somewhat arrogant of RedHat to disallow > that option in the installer. Mandrake is a fine release. If you are happier with that than Red Hat, why not use it? I don't agree that it is arrogant of Red Hat at all. I think that they are trying ro minimize their support costs and maximize their stability. If you ran Red Hat I suspect that your tune would change in a day or less, right after you wandered through whereever they have the bank of people answering the phones. And by the way, I don't work for Red Hat, or get money for Red Hat, and I'm well known for beating the hell out of Red Hat when I think they do the wrong thing. In this case, I agree with their approach, I think it is the right answer. -- --- Larry McVoy lm at bitmover.com http://www.bitmover.com/lm
