BTRFS or EXT4 for desktop

[kainalu]

What do you think? I'm bombing all 4 of my drives and reinstalling / restoring. at that time, I'm converting off EXT3. So, BTRFS, EXT4, or Other?

[Spice Weasel]

Xfs.

Btrfs is no where near ready/stable.

[FuturePilot]

Ext4 right now. BTRFS isn't even ready yet.

[czr114]

btrfs is not stable, not optimized, and can't be fscked. It needs further development.

[cariboo]

Use ext4, BTRFS is glacially slow right now. As a side note, only the boot drive on my server is ext4, the other 7 are XFS.

[Slug71]

Id wait on BTRFS until a separate boot partition is no longer needed.

[ubuntu27]

If you want to be stable, go for Ext4.

[madjr]

btrfs is the future, but for now is not ready yet.

might be within next year or even default by next lts

[chessnerd]

In a few years, I might say "use BTRFS" but it just isn't ready for widespread use yet. So, I recommend ext4. I'd call it stable and reports of the infamous "data-loss" are now sporadic at best. I haven't had a problem with it since I switched to it over a year ago. All 3 of my Linux installs use it and all of them are fine.

[kainalu]

A couple of people mention XFS. What are the advantages or features that you like about that file system?

[ezsit]

For a desktop system, why do you need something other than ext3? Ext4 offers very little over ext3 for desktop use -- slightly faster recovery from improper shutdowns, but that's about it. I stick with ext3, its a file system, what do you need except stability?

[Pogeymanz]

For a desktop system, why do you need something other than ext3? Ext4 offers very little over ext3 for desktop use -- slightly faster recovery from improper shutdowns, but that's about it. I stick with ext3, its a file system, what do you need except stability?

Speed.

My personal favorite is JFS. It uses significantly less CPU than the other filesystems and performs as well. It's developed by IBM, so it must be good. ;p

Also, XFS seems really good, especially if you have big files (movies, distro isos, etc.), but you need to set the right parameters for it, to get the most out of it.

I usually use:

/boot ext2
/home ext3/4 or XFS
/ jfs
/var reiserfs
/tmp reiserfs or ext2 depending on what I want to use the machine for.

[Spice Weasel]

A couple of people mention XFS. What are the advantages or features that you like about that file system?


Faster than ext3/ext4
Has a cool name
Can be defragged
Very good at handling large files

[khelben1979]

I'd go for EXT4.

EXT3 if the kernel in the distribution is lower than 2.6.30 to prevent data losses as the driver for EXT4 would be unstable.

[donniezazen]

Use ext4, BTRFS is glacially slow right now. As a side note, only the boot drive on my server is ext4, the other 7 are XFS.

I make a root, a swap and home partition. Can i use XFS for all three or ext4 for root and XFS for other 2.

[czr114]

After seeing this thread come back up again, I can't help but caution that using btrfs on anything but a test system is inviting trouble we probably can't help fix.

It may be the way forward, but depending on it right now is irresponsible.

[Gremlinzzz]

Ext4

[Khakilang]

I use what come with Ubuntu. So far ext4 has serve me well. No crashes or system hang. Maybe I am not a heavy user. I am sure they have tested the ext 4 thoroughly before release. So ext4 must be safe to use.

[MasterNetra]

My vote is for EXT4. Haven't had a issue with it. BTRFS not ready yet.

[ukripper]

Ext4 for time being

[ukripper]

I'd go for EXT4.

EXT3 if the kernel in the distribution is lower than 2.6.30 to prevent data losses as the driver for EXT4 would be unstable.

Good point!

[Blue Beard]

Xfs.

Btrfs is no where near ready/stable.

It depends on what you call stable. I have being using btrfs for over a year without a single mishap. The problem with corruption on power failure appears to be a hardware issue.

The only issue I see is the lack of a fsck that repairs a corrupted drive. See http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-btrfs@vger.kernel.org/msg06277.html

That should be available soon.

Try using snapshots to save your directory before a software install.

[Sammi]

It depends on what you call stable. I have being using btrfs for over a year without a single mishap. The problem with corruption on power failure appears to be a hardware issue.

The only issue I see is the lack of a fsck that repairs a corrupted drive. See http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-btrfs@vger.kernel.org/msg06277.html

That should be available soon.

Try using snapshots to save your directory before a software install.
But even then, what is the benefit of Btrfs over EXT4?

[kainalu]

Fair enough, all. I think I'm going to go with :

/ EXT4
/home EXT4 (maybe JFS)
/Data XFS or JFS
/Backup EXT3 (current, I aint touchin it)

Thanks for all your help, community!