Immersed

I am immersed in a problem.  An "issue", if you will.  And given that it's an issue that has the potential to touch any one of us who use computers, I thought I'd pass it along - or at least the message derived from dealing with this issue.

The messages is this:  Do NOT store Mac files on a system other than a Mac.

Windows is capable of using Mac files if you run the proper software as a layer between Windows and the drive with the files.  It won't happen, properly, without adding software not native to a Windows install.  Even so, read/writes are unreliable.

Linux is capable of formatting a drive for use by Mac's file system (hfs+), and there are utilities that will allow one to accept and store Mac files, but read/write operations CAN corrupt specific types of Mac files that contain information about the location of files on the system - thereby making the files invisible.

Macs are making inroads into the Enterprise Environment.  And there will be more and more adoptees of Macs and the way Macs do business.  And more and more people will run into the issue I'm dealing with now.  Because macs need to be backed up.  Because Macs will probably wind up using network storage.

Macs will never achieve the cachet that Windows (and even Linux) has in the Enterprise unless and until they HFS+ files system is rendered moot and no longer applicable.

There are journaled file systems like Reiser FS or btrfs or ext4 that will allow Macs to co-exist with Linux and Windows much easier than it does (or does not) do now.  It is time to change.  Period.

End of rant.

Ndinombethe, ubuntu.

Tomorrow ... Sarah