this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
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The last update to NTFS was in 2004.
The fact that ReFS doesn't even support all the features NTFS does is pathetic.
Genuine question, not being sarcastic.
What’s the benefit to the average end user to modernizing NTFS?
Sure, I love having btrfs on my NAS for all the features it brings, but I’m not a normal person. What significant changes that would affect your average user does NTFS require to modernize it?
I just see it as an “if it’s not broken” type thing. I can’t say I’ve ever given the slightest care about what filesystem my computer was running until I got into NAS/backups, which itself was a good 10 years after I got into building PCs. The way I see it, it doesn’t really matter when I’m reinstalling every few years and have backups elsewhere.
I'd add better built in multi-device support and recovery (think RAID and drive pooling) but that might be beyond the "average" user (which is always a vague term and I feel there are many types of users within that average). E.g. users that mod their games can benefit from snapshots and/or reflink copies allowing to make backups of their game dirs without taking up any additional space beyond the changes that the mods add.
Add speed in there
NTFS is slow
I agree all those are nice things to have, and things I'd want to see in an update. Now how can you sell those features to management? How do these improve the experience for the everyday end user?
I'd say the snapshots feature could be a major selling point. Windows needs a good backup/restore solution.
It just seems like potentially a ton of work to satisfy the needs of "people who think about filesystems", which is an extremely small subset of users. I can see how it might be hard to get the manpower and resources needed to rework the Windows default filesystem.
I really have no clue how much work it takes though, so it's just speculation on my end. I'm just curious; on one hand, I do see where NTFS is way behind, but on the other... who cares? I've somehow made it past 20 years of building WIndows PCs without really caring what filesystem I've used, from 95 all the way to 11.
At the very least, better filesystem level compression support. A somewhat common usecase might be people who use emulators. Both Wii U and PS3 are consoles where major emulators just use a folder on your filesystem. I know a lot of emulator users who are non-technical to the point that they don't have "show hidden files and folders" enabled.
Also your average person wouldn't necessarily need checksums, but having them built into the filesystem would lead to overall more reliability.
You'd think it'd be ready... Weren't they been developing it for like a decade?