PFS3 is soon to become free and opensource

[Gulliver]

I sent an email to the creator of the widely known Amiga Professional Filesystem, Michiel Pelt, and he seems to be willing to share his creation with the entire comunity, and he is also willing to give away the sourcecode of it. For further details what follows is an email exchange we had, and will keep having

On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 7:42 PM, Ignacio  wrote:

Hi, I am sorry to bother you with this ten year old stuff. The thing is that I have bought PFS 3 Amiga filesystem solution a couple of years ago.
It is great sofware for Amigas, and since you have been in the past a great supporter and developer for this now small Amiga community, is that I dare ask you if you could please allow me to put these files on the Public Domain, so that they are freely available to everyone. I would also add if you think it is necessary, that you wont provide any suport whatsoever, and not be liable for any damage at all.
By the way, if at some point, you are willing to give out the sources of this excellent software for non commercial purposes (If you still have them), that would be even better.
So please, just say yes.


Thank you for your time,
Regards,
Ignacio gully


--------------------------------------------


"Michiel Pelt"
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To:
"Ignacio"
Hi Ignacio,

For me it are good old times. How different things would be if the
Amiga platform had been in capable hands. I remained hopeful for a
long time. I even have a complete design of PFS4 on the shelves, but
eventually I gave up on the promise of a future for the Amiga.  I
think it is great an Amiga community still exists though.

About your request. Yes, I think it is about time to make PFS3
available in the Public Domain. However I must think about the license
to use. Can you tell me what the main public domain channel for the
Amiga is these days?

I do still have the sources but I don't have an Amiga - my A4000 was
broken beyond repair and is gone now. I can't release the sources
without one because I have to make clear instructions of how to set up
the build environment and build PFS which I can't without being able
to verify. I guess I'll have to set up a WinUAE environment but then
there is the problem Amiga floppies cannot be read. I still have the
compiler, the workbench etc, but it is on floppy. So this is not going
to be easy. As you still are in the Amiga community, perhaps you have
some ideas.

Regards
Michiel Pelt

[Gulliver]

This is the PFS3 feature list, for those that dont know much about this filesystem:

PFS Doctor, a repair program
User definable deldir up to 992 entries!
Extra long filenames, up to 100 characters (optional)
Improved long term performance, PFS3 hardly fragmentates !
HDInsttools for easy installation
Our own format command
Several bugfixes
superior performance. Up-to 500% improvement over FFS/DOS5!.  
disk are always valid. No more 'validation disk'!
supports partitions upto 104 Gigabyte
supports harddisk sizes upto 2000 Gigabyte
works on all Amiga's/harddisks without the need for extra hard or software!
TD64 support
excellent reliability
concurrent access without performance loss. PFS3 handles simultaneous accesses very well!
easy file-recovery with the delete directory. Getting a deleted file back never was so easy.
automatically truncated logfiles. Get rid of those ever growing logfiles.
multiuser support
Special upgrade price for PFS2 users, NLG 89 including P&P.
68000, 68020, 68040 and 68060 optimized versions

Built-in interface for the live optimiser that is under development. This interface makes it
possible to optimise the disk without taking it off-line. When the disk is accessed during
optimisation, PFS2 will stop the optimiser, which can continue afterwards. A dormant optimiser
can even be automatically notified when the system is idle, making optimisation completely
transparent.

improved testing procedures making PFS3 more stable and reliable then ever before.
enhanced documentation including programming docs (disk structure and special packets).
new versions of supplied tools (bug-fixes mostly), diskvalid etc
full support

early problem detection mechanism. The early problem detection mechanism detects problems with
your disk before it is too late, ensuring optimal protection of your data.

extended disk structure to make disk-repair easier
Comes on CD
PFS3 makes your Amiga faster!

[Gulliver]

@All
Thank you for your kind words. Lets be patient and keep our hopes high.

@Cammy and @whiteb
There is no deceit in asking. We should ask more devs, remember some of them are or have been great Amiga fans

@mfilos
I have already replied to Michel with some help for him. If that doesnt suit him, then I will surely need to ask a hand to generous users such as yourself.
On another related subject, I have more good news my friend, but will need to create a separate thread for that

[Gulliver]

@Gulliver: what about building a list of software that has been released as free and/or open source ? Could be useful. You could also use that to convince more people to release their software...

Okay, so that you know who I contacted, and the results I got so far:

Tobias Abt - Picasso96 - Got a response, it was NO
Heinz Wrobel - Envoy3 - Got a response, it was NO
Chris Hames - PCTask - YES to binaries
Michiel Pelt - PFS3 - YES to binaries and source, but will have to wait till he solves some issues
Holger Kruze - Miami Deluxe - Awaiting answer. Still to early to declare unanswered
Thomas Frieden/Hyperion - Warp3D - No answer
Stefan Stuntz - MUI 3.8 - No answer
Stephen Fellner - RiVA - Yes, but doesnt have enough time to look into the matter and release it

[Gulliver]

I got a progress report. Email follows. But before posting it, he mentions that he needs a working 100MB zip drive to recover some files. Does anybody have one to send him for free (he lives in Holland)?
_______________________________________________________________

From:
"Michiel Pelt"
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To:
"Ignacio"
Hi Ignacio,

First thing is the binary release on aminet. You can expect that soon
enough. Source code release just needs some time. I do have the
sources. But you should realize PFS3 is a complex piece of software
and this includes the build. I cannot throw it in the public domain
just as it is, it has to be bundled in a nice package with clear
instructions.

To do that I first have to create a working build environment myself,
and I am not quite there yet. I have the sources. I have a licensed
copy of WinUAE. The compiler, SAS C, I had on original floppy disk,
but I downloaded it already (I do have a license).

I appreciate the help offered and I might need some. I am not sure
about the license to use. All I really want is credit whenever someone
uses any of it - that is I have to be mentioned and I want to be
informed about it.

Also, do you know someone in the possession of a working 100MB zip
drive? I have some pfs-formatted zip disks that may have some useful
stuff on it.

Best regards,

Michiel Pelt
_______________________________________________________________

So anyone has a zip drive to give away for free To Michiel?

[Gulliver]

@Tahoe
Thanks, I have just sent you a private message!

[Gulliver]

From:
"Michiel Pelt"
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To:
"Ignacio"
> On the other hand, many people are intrigued by your PFS4. Do you have at least a draft of what was supposed to feature? It will be interesting to have any information regarding this filesystem.

PFS3 was a very modern and advanced filesystem for its time, not only
looking at the Amiga market, but at filesystems in general. Over the
years many of the ideas found in PFS3 have been incorporated in other
filesystems. PFS3 was one of the first to be atomic, now more have
this feature. Rollover files still seem to be unique to PFS3.

PFS3 was based on the original shareware PFS which was designed as a
floppy filesystem. A lot of changes have been made to make PFS work on
ever larger harddisks and the result was PFS3 which works pretty well.
The most recent Linux filesystems like Reiser4 surpass it though, but
there is one area where PFS3 remains king: the floppy or other
relatively small removable disks like ZIP, what it was originally
designed to work on.

PFS4 is a new design from the ground up. It takes the good things from
PFS3 and adds new ideas inspired by scientific papers and open source
filesystems like Reiser. Most notable improvements compared to PFS3
are
- B+ tree for directory structure which improves scalability and
handling of large directories.
- Redesign of the atomic commit feature.
- Automatic grouping of small files which results in both more
storagespace and better performance.
- Builtin automatic defragmentation and improved fragmentation prevention.

Note that PFS4 only exists on paper.

Best regards,

Michiel Pelt

[Gulliver]

Just to keep you all updated. AndreasM, the guy in charge of the Amiga Future magazine, asked me for the email of Michiel Pelt, which I gladly gave him.

What follows is a brief email update from Michiel:  


From:
"Michiel Pelt"
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To:
"Ignacio"

Ignacio,

The full PFS3 will be available on the Amiga Future cover disk as is.
This will consist of the files directly taken from the original CD.

Best regards

Michiel Pelt
author of PFS3

[Gulliver]

Well, it seems this subject has brought some debate.

First, let me clarify my intentions which have remained the same since the begining of this PFS3 affair:
I already own, since a few years, a legal copy of PFS3, and so basicly, all I wanted is to ask the developer to relese it for free so that all users could enjoy the same excellent filesystem I was using, which I still believe to be the best on Amigas. I also asked him for the sourcecode. I am not a coder, and I havent got the skills to tinker with it, but I thought it would be great for further improvements, bugfixes, updates, and the possibility of being ported to other Amigoid OSes, so that it could even run natively on them.

So, my idea was purely for the benefit of the entire Amiga community (Amig68k, OS4, MorphOS, AROS, etc), no matter how bitter, twisted or divided it is. I dont gain a single thing from this, and I really dont expect credit to be given to me, I am not after it, and it really doesnt mean anything.
It was just an act of good will from an Amiga fan

I am truly sorry if some of you feel that I had taken the wrong decision regarding the fact that I gave the email address of Mr. Pelt to AndreasM. But I thought it was a step in the right direction (making PFS3 availble), perhaps I was too naive, I really dont know.

Bottomline: I know PFS3 will be released both as binary and sourcecode, for free, for everyone, as intended. It will just be a matter of time. And the rest, well, it is upto you to be the judge.

[Gulliver]

@Piru
I am not a coder, and I see you have valid arguments. Well... it was one of my naive ideas

[Gulliver]

I just got a reply from Michiel, here it is:


Re: PFS3
Monday, May 31, 2010 11:09 AM
From:
"Michiel Pelt"
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To:
"Ignacio"
> Thank you for letting me know. I just wanted to ask you two things:
> 1-Are you still going to release the PFS3 cdrom on Aminet, so that it becomes publicly availble?

Not exactly. First of all, the CD ROM also contains Kang Fu, which
will not be included. Secondly, the PFS3 on the CD is a commercial
release, with serial number registration etc. I will remove this and
make some other changes to reflect that it is a public domain release.
Since this takes some time, and you are all waiting so eagerly, I
decided to agree to publish PFS3 as is on the coverdisk of Amiga
Future. In other words: on the Amiga Future coverdisk you get a
licensed copy of the commercial PFS3 for free, on Aminet there will be
a public domain distribution of PFS3.

> 2-How is the work on the sources going?

It is just a matter that needs some of my time, which is rather
limited at the moment.

Best regards

Michiel Pelt

[Gulliver]

Naive is an understatement! But we can't blame you, since you didn't know.. The problem is, that now PFS3 is dead. We will never see a PD release, AF will see to that.

You seem to have missed Michiel last email, just above, where he confirms the opposite.

[Gulliver]

i think that's what exactly what should happen

While I undertsand how you feel, and I personally have an open mind regarding software piracy/abandonware, I believe that it could have a negative impact on the process of getting the sourcecode of PFS3 publicly available. So please before doing that, be aware of the implications.

At the end, we will get something better than what Amiga Fututre will offer, it is just that we will have to wait a little bit longer.

But then, it is your call.

[Gulliver]

No news yet.

[Gulliver]

@Dandy

Well done! I hope you manage to get an OS4 build.

BTW, I should add to the list you quoted:
Holger Kruze - Miami Deluxe - No response
Bob Luneski - Termite TCP & GameSmith - YES only binaries
Sebastian Jedruszkiewicz - Frogger NG - No response