<story><title>Linus: Don&apos;t Use ZFS</title><url>https://www.realworldtech.com/forum/?threadid=189711&amp;curpostid=189841</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Hamuko</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s his reasoning for not merging ZFS code, not for generally avoiding ZFS.</text></item><item><author>Jonnax</author><text>Here&amp;#x27;s his reasoning:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;honestly, there is no way I can merge any of the ZFS efforts until I get an official letter from Oracle that is signed by their main legal counsel or preferably by Larry Ellison himself that says that yes, it&amp;#x27;s ok to do so and treat the end result as GPL&amp;#x27;d.&lt;p&gt;Other people think it can be ok to merge ZFS code into the kernel and that the module interface makes it ok, and that&amp;#x27;s their decision. But considering Oracle&amp;#x27;s litigious nature, and the questions over licensing, there&amp;#x27;s no way I can feel safe in ever doing so.&lt;p&gt;And I&amp;#x27;m not at all interested in some &amp;quot;ZFS shim layer&amp;quot; thing either that some people seem to think would isolate the two projects. That adds no value to our side, and given Oracle&amp;#x27;s interface copyright suits (see Java), I don&amp;#x27;t think it&amp;#x27;s any real licensing win either.&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>btilly</author><text>Here are his reasons for generally avoiding ZFS from what I consider most important to least.&lt;p&gt;- The kernel team may break it at any time, and won&amp;#x27;t care if they do.&lt;p&gt;- It doesn&amp;#x27;t seem to be well-maintained.&lt;p&gt;- Performance is not that great compared to the alternatives.&lt;p&gt;- Using it opens you up to the threat of lawsuits from Oracle.  Given history, this is a real threat.  (This is one that should be high for Linus but not for me - there is no conceivable reason that Oracle would want to threaten me with a lawsuit.)</text></comment>
<story><title>Linus: Don&apos;t Use ZFS</title><url>https://www.realworldtech.com/forum/?threadid=189711&amp;curpostid=189841</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Hamuko</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s his reasoning for not merging ZFS code, not for generally avoiding ZFS.</text></item><item><author>Jonnax</author><text>Here&amp;#x27;s his reasoning:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;honestly, there is no way I can merge any of the ZFS efforts until I get an official letter from Oracle that is signed by their main legal counsel or preferably by Larry Ellison himself that says that yes, it&amp;#x27;s ok to do so and treat the end result as GPL&amp;#x27;d.&lt;p&gt;Other people think it can be ok to merge ZFS code into the kernel and that the module interface makes it ok, and that&amp;#x27;s their decision. But considering Oracle&amp;#x27;s litigious nature, and the questions over licensing, there&amp;#x27;s no way I can feel safe in ever doing so.&lt;p&gt;And I&amp;#x27;m not at all interested in some &amp;quot;ZFS shim layer&amp;quot; thing either that some people seem to think would isolate the two projects. That adds no value to our side, and given Oracle&amp;#x27;s interface copyright suits (see Java), I don&amp;#x27;t think it&amp;#x27;s any real licensing win either.&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lmilcin</author><text>The problem with ZFS is that it isn&amp;#x27;t part of Linux kernel.&lt;p&gt;Linux project maintains compatibility with userspace software but it does not maintain compatibility with 3rd party modules and for a good reason.&lt;p&gt;Since modules have access to any internal kernel API it is not possible to change anything within kernel without considering 3rd party code, if you want to keep that code working.&lt;p&gt;For this reason the decision was made that if you want your module to work you need to make it part of Linux kernel and then if anybody refactors anything they need to consider modules they would be affecting by the change.&lt;p&gt;Not allowing the module to be part of the kernel is a disservice to your user base. While there are modules like that that are maintained moderately successfully (Nvidia, vmware, etc.) this is all at the cost of the user and userspace maintainers who have to deal with it.</text></comment>