Question

There have been multiple attempts to have operating systems use databases or database-like stores. What have been some of the major past attempts at this? What was their fate? Why? Key examples (not exhaustive): WinFS, ReiserFS, PalmOS, Newton OS, BeOS

Answer

WinFS

History Pre-WinFS:

The history of WinFS is relatively long, as we can find trace of the project back in mid-90's with Storage +. Microsoft had the idea to remove NTFS file system and instead use a relational object-oriented file storage which was based on SQL server 8.0. It was supposed to be implemented in windows 2003 Server. But then, in 2000 Windows announced that Storage + was to be forgotten and Relational File System (RFS) was his successor. RFS was supposed to be included in SQL server 2000, but never made the cut. A factor that we can't forget, in 2000 Oracle announced a new file system which was a relational file system, Independent Internet File System. Microsoft had to rethink RFS to be ahead of the competition and that added additional delay. We heard in 2002 about a new file system that would be present in Longhorn, renamed Vista. The system would be once again based on its predecessor, in this case RFS, but it would have as requirement to run on top of a NTFS file system. WinFS was included in a few public build for Vista, but in 2004 it was removed from the beta builds. It was said it would be downloadable later, but was definitely cut for good in 2006 from Vista.