AlmaLinux has announced that its upcoming version 10.1 of the operating system will include support for the Btrfs file system. This development comes after Red Hat deprecated Btrfs from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) in 2017, despite the technology gaining traction in other distributions, such as SUSE.
Although Red Hat has distanced itself from Btrfs, which was initially developed by Oracle to enhance Linux”s storage capabilities, AlmaLinux has opted to incorporate the file system into its latest beta release. According to Davide Cavalca, a production engineer for the Linux userspace at Meta, “Btrfs is a modern Copy-on-Write (CoW) file system implementing advanced features while also focusing on fault tolerance, repair and easy administration.” He further noted that Btrfs offers capabilities such as snapshotting, built-in volume management, data and metadata checksumming, transparent compression, and efficient copying through reflinks.
Cavalca emphasized that users can now install AlmaLinux OS on a Btrfs volume from the outset. “Initial enablement was scoped to the installer and storage management stack, and broader support within the AlmaLinux software collection for Btrfs features is forthcoming,” he stated.
This means that during the installation process of AlmaLinux OS 10.1 or the AlmaLinux OS Kitten—a non-production preview version—users can select a Btrfs volume instead of the default XFS+LVM setup. The implementation of Btrfs is anticipated to enhance performance for common workloads and improve resilience against data degradation and other potential issues related to storage mediums.
However, Btrfs is not without its critics. Some users remain skeptical about its reliability, with one observer remarking, “People don”t trust it, and for good reason.” Others have reported challenges while using Btrfs with OpenSUSE, where it is the default file system. Nevertheless, AlmaLinux”s adoption of Btrfs may provide it with a competitive advantage over RHEL and other distributions that continue to avoid this file system.
This move also reflects a growing fragmentation within the enterprise Linux landscape. This fragmentation began when Red Hat, now a subsidiary of IBM, decided to discontinue the CentOS Linux project in favor of CentOS Stream, a development branch of RHEL, making RHEL”s source code less accessible. Consequently, alternatives like AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, and Oracle Linux have emerged, with AlmaLinux positioning itself as binary compatible with RHEL. The inclusion of Btrfs signifies a widening divergence among various Linux distributions.
