Re: Bug#1143565: Debian should default to XFS

Hi,

On Tue, 2026-08-04 at 12:57 +0200, Chris Hofstaedtler wrote:
>=20
> > Unlike RHEL, Debian isn't an enterprise distribution, it's a universal =
distribution,
> > so it has quite different needs when it comes to the default choices.
>=20
> Inferring from above, what does the "universial distribution" do=20
> here? We've been riding this argument for so long, that we now have=20
> defaults (everywhere in the distro) that are bad for almost=20
> everybody. That's certainly a way of being "universal", but not in a=20
> good way.

Debian as opposed to RHEL (and SLES) has a much larger set of supported
architectures, configurations and packages. Enterprise distributions are
usually trimmed down to specific usecases such as servers, cloud instances
or workstations.

That's because enterprise distributions are fully supported by their vendor=
s
which is only possible when they restrict their supported flavors to very
specific configurations and architectures.

In Debian, we don't have such restrictions and the same distribution that
can be installed on a POWER system or IBM mainframe can be installed on a
32-bit ARM or RISC-V embedded board or a Chinese LoongArch system.

> IMO the best thing would be for someone to point out technical=20
> tradeoffs of different available choices, and then as a distro we=20
> can make a decision. If we cannot pick anything because we think we=20
> cannot pick anything, then also the default we cannot pick should go=20
> away.
>=20
> If you have any insights on what the universal distribution needs as=20
> the default, please by all means post them! But otherwise, please=20
> lets stop invoking the universal distro.

Since ext2/ext3/ext4 has been the default filesystem for a long time, it ha=
s
been battle-tested on a large number of configurations and architectures, s=
o
it's safe to assume it will work fine on any of the systems that are offici=
ally
and unofficially supported by Debian. Whether that will apply to XFS, I don=
't
know.

I'm not saying that XFS may not be a good choice, it certainly is and I'm
using it for certain applications. However, whether it makes sense to use
it as a default for an operating system that is expected to run almost
everywhere, is another question.

Adrian

--=20
 .''`.  John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' :  Debian Developer
`. `'   Physicist
  `-    GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546  0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913