Get educated about WinFS

Among Microsoft’s big announcements and releases during the last week of August was the first beta of the new Windows file system (WinFS).

You might call it a semi-public beta, since it’s available for download by any registered Microsoft developer at the Microsoft Developer Network Web site.

There was a great deal of hoopla in the press commenting on the “early” release of the beta. In reality, of course, there’s nothing early about it. WinFS was previously informally known as “Longhorn FS” because it was scheduled to ship with Longhorn server, the successor to Windows Server 2003, which is now set for release in very late 2006. WinFS, though, won’t be included. Instead, it will ship as an add-on, perhaps as part of the first service pack (SP1) or perhaps in an interim release (think of that as “Longhorn R2”).

Longhorn server itself is about 3 years late, and WinFS was originally due out before that – as an add-on for Windows 2000. So for the first semi-public beta of a product initially due 5 years ago to finally be available is hardly an “early release.” Still, good things come to those who wait, and WinFS promises to be a “good thing.”

This will actually only be the fourth file system from Microsoft ever – the first one, which came with DOS 1.0, only lasted a year or two. The FAT (File Allocation System) system was with us for 15 years (and it is still with us) before being improved upon for the NTFS (Windows NT File System), which is now more than 10-years-old. NTFS was designed especially for something FAT couldn’t handle – large storage devices. Of course, “large” is a relative term. What was large in 1995 is considered woefully inadequate for a disk subsystem on a Windows 2003 server.

But not only has the physical disk changed so too has the data stored on that disk. Back in the days of a FAT system, a typical file included bits and bytes representing letters, numbers and symbols. A few of the bits and bytes controlled layout and formatting but it all made up a single file. Today’s software is much more sophisticated. True, there are still letters, numbers and symbols – but there are also scads of meta-data – data that describes the data in the file, or which describes the file characteristics. A document used by an application may be made up of multiple files, for that matter, each with its own load of meta-data. In fact, there’s a lot more we could be doing if only the file system could handle it.

There’s a good introduction to WinFS on Microsoft’s Web site that you should read for a full understanding of what’s coming and why developers are excited about it. Server administrators ought to be excited too, because it will make using a file system both easier and more productive. Don’t drop everything to read about it, but don’t wait too long, either. You’ll want to plan for the possibilities that’ll be available to you once WinFS arrives on your network – maybe in late 2007.