The file system is an artifact of the limitations of early processors that had no memory virtualization capabilities and had an insufficient memory address word size. Programs and data had to be marshalled out of and back into a logically distinct store because 64K can only hold so much information. Modern 32 and 64 bit processors with memory management units can treat storage as large, slow, persistent memory obviating the contortions required in conventional operating systems to keep data from going away when the computer is shut down.
A heirarchical name space is still required for users to keep track of where they put things but virtual memory can hold that tree structure just as well as inodes can and the judicious use of separate memory spaces can side-step a 4 gigabyte limitation for storage on 32-bit machines.
Unfortunately the last time I saw someone implement something like this was a Pascal-based OS. But I think they're playing with something similar in Étoilé. (Some day.) And it sounds fairly much in groove with Plan 9.
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Anonymous2011-05-22 21:28
OMG WHEN SOMEONE REMOVES THE SD CARD IN YOUR OS SUDDENLY, GOOD BYE OS. REAL FUCKING ROBUST PLAN THERE, DIPSHIT, MUNGING RAM WITH STORAGE. REAL FUCKING BRILLIANT.
IIRC some early capability-based systems featured single address space already in seventies. It's like ray-tracing -- a technology of the future, that forever stays in future.
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Anonymous2011-05-22 22:26
Actually, this is reminding me of MUMPS. Everything is stored in a key-value database. Everything. And that DB is stored on disk in a giant file. That is all.
It led to some fairly bad code management techniques.
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Anonymous2011-05-22 23:00
>>6
A heirarchical name space is still required for users to keep track of where they put things but virtual memory can hold that tree structure just as well as inodes can and the judicious use of separate memory spaces can side-step a 4 gigabyte limitation for storage on 32-bit machines.
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Anonymous2011-05-22 23:39
>>7
Nice fantasy. Most operating systems didn't have a hierarchical structure until 1982, though the concept was invented in the sixties, more or less for Multics. You don't need a filesystem hierarchy. This is a sad truth.
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Anonymous2011-05-23 0:22
>>8
How else would you organize your mp3 collection? You can use simple lists (considering system explorer can inspect into them), but this would be that same as the filesystem.
Back in the day the organization went disk->file. You could just look at a list and pick any one of your 20 files! So easy! Obviously we should return to the ways of these wise ancients.
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Anonymous2011-05-23 1:34
>>11
Just sayin' that it's possible, bro. Not that it's right.
Obviously, the One True Hierarchy is always right.
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Anonymous2011-05-23 6:44
>>3
NO, YOU FUCKING DIPSHIT. RAM is where EXECUTABLE CODE lives, such must be LOADED from STORAGE BEFORE it can be EXECUTED.
STORAGE. RAM. LEARN THE DIFFERENCE, IT COULD SAVE YOUR [i]LIFE[i].
>>13
Protip: On any given general purpose computer system, there are two main types of storage which are primary storage, the RAM modules, and secondary storage such as tapes and floppy disks.