Musings

While I was attending my very first FAST conference, in 2006, a journalist told me that he had a question for a file system expert. I walked him toward registration and quickly spotted someone who I thought could answer his question. After all, I didn't think it would be that hard.

"Why are there so many file systems?" he asked. I was floored. At the time, I thought this was a naive question and felt embarrassed for the journalist. But I later realized I shouldn't have been, because while I had accepted the fact that there were many file systems, multiple ones for every popular operating system, there actually are many reasons why there are so many.