Carl, I hate to burst your bubble, but ZFS isn't the default file system in Leopard. And it's not used by Time Machine. As far as I'm aware, Time Machine does backups the good old-fashioned way: incremental file copies. I believe that Apple's only said that ZFS drives will be read-only in Leopard.
Re: bit rot, it has been years since I've had this happen to a disk that has not suffered physical damage of some kind. Your dialog box screenshot indicates that the drive you suffered "bit rot" on was in your laptop. That doesn't surprise me; laptop hard drives get roughed up a lot more than desktop drives, simply by virtue of being picked up and moved around every day.
But ZFS won't solve that; ZFS won't make hard drives any less fragile.
Mac OS X could certainly use a new default file system. Maybe ZFS is it -- although I have concerns about how well ZFS scales down for, say, a laptop hard drive. But it's incorrect to say that ZFS is here now, or will give Leopard any sort of mass-market leg up on the competition.
I do backups. Couldn't be easier with SuperDuper!
Sun's ZFS was invented for servers, but you make a good argument for having in on the desktop. So you are making an argument that the desktop is still relevent. I agree.
Many anti-Microsoft people claim Web-based apps and data stored on the server have made desktop unimportant and all you need is a Web browser. Yeah right. The desktop is still important. That is why Microsoft will always dominate the desktop.
I posted a similar article back in June on my blog:
http://themacview.blogspot.com/2...port-
means.html
Hi all,
I've posted an update clarifying that I wasn't asserting that ZFS is the default file system in Leopard. Instead, I'm claiming its the foundation for lots of new stuff coming. And yes, I know Time Machine isn't built on ZFS.
Re bit rot, even data center geeks acknowledge its existence, disk abuse or not. All it takes is a program that aborts at just the wrong time or someone to trip over a power cord. Just because it's infrequent doesn't mean it doesn't happen. And unless our systems safeguard our data better, as storage systems get better, they will get less and less reliable.
I also use SuperDuper and do backups religiously. Even so, I can't wait for ZFS. We've lived with the boat anchor of volume-based storage and backup for too long.
And Marc, I hadn't seen your article, but it's great to see that I'm not the only one thinking this is a great idea.
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Carl
Gentlemen,
I too look forward to the perceived and discussed benefits of ZFS.
One point, I was a SuperDuper fan until just recently when the application did not live up to it's worth. Backups appeared to go with ease until it was called into action to restore, at which point it hosed the restore operation.
I won't so blindly trust SD going forward.
elm
Looking forward to Leopard's Time Machine! Saving up for my TB external drive. 
Commenting by HaloScan
