A while ago we were telling you there are 20% chances to get BTRFS support in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat. Well, it didn't make it.

BTRFS was (it probably still is) available in the Ubuntu 10.10 installer but unfortunately an update today to the BTRFS Support blueprint says it has been deferred for competition in Natty (Ubuntu 11.04) as there's not enough time to complete all the remaining work for Maverick.

A while ago, Phoronix ran some tests comparing BTRFS and EXT4 and the results were pretty impressive. However, there are some things they didn't consider in their tests (also read the comments on that post).

BTRFS support for the installer came in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat a few days ago so the folks @ Phoronix ran some tests comparing BTRFS and EXT4.

The results between BTRFS with the default options and EXT4 were pretty close but once the zlib compression was activated (this feature is only available for BTRFS), BTRFS was 2x faster than EXT4 in the 4GB write IOzone test and 4x faster than EXT4 for the 4GB read IOzone test.

Check out the full tests results @ Phoronix.


Update: the results for this test may be wrong. Also, it seems BTRFS has a serious bug. Read the comments below!

[image credits: Phoronix]

Colin Watson (Ubuntu Development Manager) just announced on the Ubuntu-Devel mailing list that you can now perform installations with a BTRFS root filesystem using the latest Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat daily ISO (only available in the alternate ISO!).

Scott James Remnant - Ubuntu Development Manager -, posted something very interesting on his blog regarding BTRFS and Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat.

But first, what is BTRFS? Btrfs is a new copy on write file system for Linux aimed at implementing advanced features while focusing on fault tolerance, repair and easy administration. Initially developed by Oracle, Btrfs is licensed under the GPL and open for contribution from anyone. BTRFS is still under heavy development. A lot more on BTRFS, here.