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WinFS Beta 2 to Appear at TechEd

By Nate Mook, BetaNews

May 23, 2006, 3:51 PM

Microsoft has been busy working on its next-generation storage technology known as WinFS and will be showing off new features next month at TechEd 2006 in Boston. WinFS Beta 1 debuted last September and Beta 2 is slated for release later this year.

WinFS, or Windows File Store, is Microsoft's new SQL-based file system technology that will be released as an add-on shortly after Windows Vista. The idea of WinFS is to create a "sea of data" that abolishes the need for the standard file and folder hierarchy.

For example, no longer would documents need to be stored in My Documents or images in My Pictures; instead, Windows would simply display the files associated with a particular request on demand. In addition, WinFS could store structured data such as contacts, calendars and more.

Asked whether WinFS is an individual file system or simply an extension of NTFS, Microsoft previously explained to BetaNews: "It's both. It's built on NTFS and it is a file system."

Items can be standard file-backed objects such as images and documents, or objects not backed by tangle files including contacts and e-mail. For file-backed items, WinFS leverages NTFS to store the data and ensure compatibility with current Win32 applications. When a file is changed, the system re-syncs the necessary metadata with WinFS.

Associations play an important role in establishing relationships between different types of data and allow users to organize information based how it's used.

"Imagine a world where data storage and retrieval just work the way they should- no need to create clumsy mappings between objects, relational tables, and byte streams being stored in files," said WinFS program manager Shan Sinha. "We finally can realize a world that simplifies the persistence, manipulation and retrieval of data, giving us an opportunity to create unique new applications based on those new capabilities."

"Since we announced the availability of Beta 1 last September, we have been busy incorporating all of the feedback you gave to us and preparing Beta 2," Sinha added. "Well at Tech Ed, we will be demonstrating why we continue to be so excited about WinFS, showing off features from our Beta 2 release."

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By DeadFly

edited May 25, 2006 - 5:57 PM

No doubt this is a good idea, but given Microsoft's track record with brand new technologies, I'll definately wait for the 2.0 version before I put something like this into production.

BTW, does anyone know of anything similar in the open source world?

Score: 0

By oomingmak

posted May 25, 2006 - 8:36 AM

Such a system is long overdue, it's simply no longer practical to store objects in a single place within a tree-like heirachy (and shortcuts or symbolic links just don't cut it).

It will be interesting to see how such a file system affects the backing up of data though. If you no longer know exactly where stuff is stored, then I'd imagine it'd require quite a change from what we're used to.

Score: 0

By frankwick

posted May 25, 2006 - 9:57 AM

Lotus Notes (once again) was aheadof teir time. Their NSF (Notes storage facility) structure allowd for all types structured/unstructured data to be stored in an efficient container. the data could be indexed for fast searching. It had tight RSA encryption and ACLs. I realize that a Notes container is not a true system-level file system, but the concepts they created for Notes were amazing and yes, ahead of their time.

Score: 0

By Noremacam

posted May 24, 2006 - 8:31 AM

I'm curious how this is going to work. This looks like a "re-tinkering" of the desktop search phenomena. It's been my experience that all those desktop search programs suck up memory and cripple performance. Maybe I just notice that more because of the games I play.

I'm curious if WinFS will fair better...

Score: 0

By frankwick

posted May 24, 2006 - 9:54 AM

You're thinking too small. This will evetulaly replace file systems as we know it. It may be an add-on now, but in the future IT WILL BE the file system. Of course you will still be able to irganize in a tree-like folders, but just as today, that is just an abstraction of the under-lying file system.

WinFS will have slow adoption for several reason. It's a concept new to most people. It's a break from what we know. The hardware requirements will be large compared to a standard XP-ish desktop.

Some of the features exist today in journaling file systems (See IBM), but it sounds like MS is exposing is more features to the user.

Score: 0

By spiltbeer99

edited May 23, 2006 - 6:51 PM

"simply display the files associated with a particular request on demand"

Does that mean a tag based system like flicker?

I've very sceptical but this may actually work.

Score: 0

By catfish182

posted May 23, 2006 - 5:28 PM

it sounds really nice but i can just see all the nights i will lose when a client tells me that they want to use this and Vista.

Yeah Sleepless weeks !!!

Score: 0

By JacenSolo

posted May 23, 2006 - 4:22 PM

What about if we want to organize things into Folders?

So far I don't like the sound of WinFS.

Score: 0

By rijp

posted May 23, 2006 - 4:24 PM

*Items can be standard file-backed objects such as images and documents, or objects not backed by tangle files including contacts and e-mail. For file-backed items, WinFS leverages NTFS to store the data and ensure compatibility with current Win32 applications*

Translation: It's Backwards compatible.

Score: 0

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