After The Register wrote about Microsoft"s plans to put a database into each copy of Windows as the native file store back in January, they were delighted to hear from two system architects for whom this news was really old hat.
You see, it"s been done before. Benoit Schillings was one of Be Inc"s first employees, and authored the original user space database server. This was later superseded by a more conventional approach: BFS, a fast, 64bit journaled file system written by Dominic Giampaolo, which had many database-like properties.
Between them they have more practical experience in making such an ambitious scheme work on a PC than anyone else. So last month we reunited Benoit and Dominic at Menlo Park"s Applewood Pizza for reminiscences about Be, and some low-down on file systems and databases.
Makes for an interesting read.. thanks StimpyX for dropping this one past us in the forums..