Comments on: NetApp tilts at windmills – and ZFS http://storagemojo.com/2007/09/07/netapp-tilts-at-windmills-and-zfs/ Data storage info & analysis Sun, 01 Aug 2010 02:16:15 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Travis Roberts http://storagemojo.com/2007/09/07/netapp-tilts-at-windmills-and-zfs/comment-page-1/#comment-127869 Travis Roberts Mon, 01 Oct 2007 04:09:29 +0000 http://storagemojo.com/2007/09/07/netapp-tilts-at-windmills-and-zfs/#comment-127869 even more ironic is that Dave Hitz himselve, describes in this blog entry, http://blogs.netapp.com/dave/2007/09/vmwares-founder.html the "inspirations" aka prior work product which "inspired" his WAFL development. Ironically netapp management has chose to interpret their founder's use prior work product as basis for WAFL development (some of which they have patents for) as "inspiration" but interpret Sun's use and continued development of open source ZFS as patent infringement. Does this look a bit hypocritical to anyone besides me? even more ironic is that Dave Hitz himselve, describes in this blog entry, http://blogs.netapp.com/dave/2007/09/vmwares-founder.html the “inspirations” aka prior work product which “inspired” his WAFL development. Ironically netapp management has chose to interpret their founder’s use prior work product as basis for WAFL development (some of which they have patents for) as “inspiration” but interpret Sun’s use and continued development of open source ZFS as patent infringement.

Does this look a bit hypocritical to anyone besides me?

]]> By: Richard http://storagemojo.com/2007/09/07/netapp-tilts-at-windmills-and-zfs/comment-page-1/#comment-115156 Richard Sun, 09 Sep 2007 12:23:14 +0000 http://storagemojo.com/2007/09/07/netapp-tilts-at-windmills-and-zfs/#comment-115156 Robin, This is about slowing down competition, using the cover of a very sick US patent system as a weapon. It seems that all of the related patents should never have been issued. As per some comments on Dave’s blog, “the idea of suing for copy-on-write is like suing for using hash tables” and it is well established that “you cannot patent an algorithms” and if you go back far enough, “everyone should have to pay IBM “. Also, we have the issue of ‘prior knowledge’, documented by Daniel Phillips …on http://uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0010.0/0343.html There is a crisis looming at NetApp, as supposedly their ‘defensively held’ trivia patents suddenly become “offensive”. I believe that given Sun current positioning, the law suit is directed more at the future of open system storage, enabled by ZFS and running on ‘commodity’ hardware, very much like NetApp controllers. ZFS is being reworked to run under FreeBSD and (I guess) it could become an option under Linux, should Sun put under GPL. With this in place, it will not be too long when various hardware vendors & system integrators are be able to offer system-level functionality similar to Sun’s “thumper”…. its not difficult. Longer-term, from the standpoint of profit margins, OSS movement is a much more serious competition than SUN. Sun should put ZFS under GPL and make the whole issue a more legitimate OSS case, which... as many believe, can not be won on the basis of ‘prior knowledge’. Robin,
This is about slowing down competition, using the cover of a very sick US patent system as a weapon. It seems that all of the related patents should never have been issued.

As per some comments on Dave’s blog, “the idea of suing for copy-on-write is like suing for using hash tables” and it is well established that “you cannot patent an algorithms” and if you go back far enough, “everyone should have to pay IBM “.

Also, we have the issue of ‘prior knowledge’, documented by Daniel Phillips …on http://uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0010.0/0343.html

There is a crisis looming at NetApp, as supposedly their ‘defensively held’ trivia patents suddenly become “offensive”.

I believe that given Sun current positioning, the law suit is directed more at the future of open system storage, enabled by ZFS and running on ‘commodity’ hardware, very much like NetApp controllers.

ZFS is being reworked to run under FreeBSD and (I guess) it could become an option under Linux, should Sun put under GPL. With this in place, it will not be too long when various hardware vendors & system integrators are be able to offer system-level functionality similar to Sun’s “thumper”…. its not difficult.

Longer-term, from the standpoint of profit margins, OSS movement is a much more serious competition than SUN.

Sun should put ZFS under GPL and make the whole issue a more legitimate OSS case, which… as many believe, can not be won on the basis of ‘prior knowledge’.

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