Towards an Installer Release of the new MacZFS (aka ZFS-OSX)

[Bjoern Kahl]

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Hi Lund, ilovezfs, Matt
hi All,

the current code in the ZFS-OSX repository has much matured in the
last couple of days and weeks, and I heard from Lund that an installer
release is pending.

This raises the question how to best coordinate such a release.

As I see it (and Lund started to discuss in private, but I think
this might concern more people), we basically have two options:

(1)

Lund considered to take a new, fresh name, for example "OpenZFS for
OSX". The obvious advantage would be to promoted the OpenZFS
initiative and its long-term goal to produced a unified, truly
cross-platform ZFS implementation.

On the other side, up to now there is no really common OpenZFS code
and build infrastructure. All implementations (ZoL, FreeBSD, illumos
and MacZFS/OSX-ZFS) have their own infrastructure and porting
approach. Calling our port "OpenZFS" could be seen as a bit over the
top.


(2)

I would prefer to release under the well known MacZFS brand. Given the
well-established name of MacZFS as *the* stable open ZFS implementation
on Mac OSX, I think keeping that name would do the most benefit for
the entire ZFS on Mac OSX user community. The obvious advantage is,
it would minimize confusion and avoid the risk of a split of the
community. If we see the need to make an obvious difference to the
old, retired code base, we could use a variation like "MacZFS++" or
"MacZFS-II" or similar. That keeps the brand while making a (subtle)
difference.

On the other side, it would be an entirely new code base under an old
name. To avoid disappointment with our users, we would need to be
very clear upfront about possible differences in behavior of the
software.


How should we go forward?

Use the MacZFS brand, as planned a year ago when the ZFS-OSX
repository started as an experiment to explore ways to advance MacZFS
to a more modern ZFS, or invent a new brand?
Or do both: Have an (infrequent) production release as MacZFS, and
much more frequent experimental releases as ZFS-OSX / OpenZFS?


Best regards

Björn

- --
| Bjoern Kahl +++ Siegburg +++ Germany |
| "googlelogin@-my-domain-" +++ www.bjoern-kahl.de |
| Languages: German, English, Ancient Latin (a bit :-)) |
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[jazzsmoothies]

Keep the MacZFS brand.  

There is no confusion between Mac OS X and Mac OS 9, where Mac OS X is an entirely new code base.  Likewise, there will be no confusion in MacZFS.  

MacZFS-OSX is current development based on OpenZFS with pool versions compatible with illumos, FreeBSD, and Linux.

MacZFS 74.x is legacy, stable code, which may receive maintenance only releases as needed.

Fred

[Daniel Jozsef]

Still, OS X had a big fat X on it. ;)

So if keeping the MacZFS name, I'd say attach a number to it. Or a big fat X. "MacZFS-OSX" is a tautology, the old MacZFS also runs on OSX...

MacZFS X... ;) Sounds cool.

[jazzsmoothies]

I like it.  MacZFS X

Fred

[Daniel Bethe]

Hi guys.  No offense, but most of this makes no sense at all.  Although a radically new version, it's a new version of the same product.  It didn't become something else.  It didn't become not-ZFS or not-Mac OS or not-MacZFS. There is no such thing as MacZFS-OSX, nor does that name make any sense (as someone else said said), nor is there any *need* for any new name.  It's just MacZFS.  With a new version number of 99 on up.  And then the version 74 can be nicknamed as "legacy".

I guess some of you guys missed all the discussion when all this started a year ago.  ^_^

[Daniel Bethe]

 Or do both: Have an (infrequent) production release as MacZFS, and 
 much more frequent experimental releases as ZFS-OSX / OpenZFS? 

That's what we had agreed upon, yeah!  We do the MacZFS repository, which has a downstream/upstream relationship with the ZFS-OSX repository which therefore hopefully basically doesn't need releases but whatever.

On Sunday, March 9, 2014 9:14:56 PM UTC-5, BjoKaSH wrote:

[Daniel Jozsef]

Using GIGANTIC LETTERS doesn't make you right, it only makes you sound like a mountain troll.

I agree that "MacZFS-OSX" makes zero sense as a name, but this is a new product. It has no continuity in code OR design with MacZFS 6, except for the fact that it serves the same purpose. (If Microsoft thought similarly, Windows 8.1 would be called MS-DOS.)

Still, since the community is more or less homogenous, I think the MacZFS name is good, but I definitely say it needs the X. ;) MacZFS X? Sounds cool!

[Daniel Jozsef]

Anyway, whatever we call it, is there going to be an RC installer? ;) Lund mentioned something about getting it done "this week", and that was like a month ago.

[Bjoern Kahl]

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Am 24.03.14 15:03, schrieb Daniel Jozsef:

> Using GIGANTIC LETTERS doesn't make you right, it only makes you
> sound like a mountain troll.
>
> I agree that "MacZFS-OSX" makes zero sense as a name, but this is a
> new product. It has no continuity in code OR design with MacZFS 6,
> except for the fact that it serves the same purpose. (If Microsoft
> thought similarly, Windows 8.1 would be called MS-DOS.)
>
> Still, since the community is more or less homogenous, I think the
> MacZFS name is good, but I definitely say it needs the X. ;) MacZFS
> X? Sounds cool!

The more I think about it, the more I like the "MacZFS X" idea. It
keeps the brand, it fits well into the "OS X" scheme and it still
makes a clear statement that this is not just an incremental update,
but an entirely new version, much like the transition from "MacOS"
to "Mac OS X" in 2001.


Best regards

Björn

- --
| Bjoern Kahl +++ Siegburg +++ Germany |
| "googlelogin@-my-domain-" +++ www.bjoern-kahl.de |
| Languages: German, English, Ancient Latin (a bit :-)) |
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[ilov...@icloud.com]

Already a done deal. It shipped on 2014-03-13.

https://openzfsonosx.org/ (or http://o3x.org)

[Daniel Jozsef]

This project clearly needs better communication. Not a word on the MacZFS site, and the latest release according to Github is 0.6.2 released last August.