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Did anyone actually release a relational file system like WinFS? I'm aware that different parts of WinFS got implemented into different products but does a relational file system like Microsoft originally planned exist?

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Why does everyone want WinFS when NTFS does the job and has been proven to work. There is going to be a new file system in Windows 8 but you won't be able to boot to it, and it is similar to WinFS but it is not WinFS, it more/less a national extension of NTFS. The new filesystem I speak of, again is an extension of NTFS, it is not WinFS. –  Ramhound Jun 27 '12 at 11:26
Because WinFS was a relational file system where data is more unified and it is easier for programs to read different formats and show information based on many different objects rather than just a single file. Windows 8 does do something like this but without unifying the file types it will still be limited compared to WinFS –  leaf68 Jun 27 '12 at 11:32
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Yes, BeFS. Sorry you can't use it with any maintained operating system (and trust me, I am sorry for myself).

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I guess it's time to download Haiku then :D (for those who don't know, Haiku OS is a project based on BeOS) –  leaf68 Jul 6 '12 at 11:29
Haiku is nice, but it doesn't really have an ecosystem (and very little hardware support). The architecture was greatly optimized and efficient in the 90s, but doesn't make much sense with modern hardware (I'm thinking mostly about the graphical layer here). –  Pierre Carrier Jul 6 '12 at 11:40
I agree, I've been using it for a few hours now, and it's file system isn't worth getting rid of everything Windows and Linux has to offer. –  leaf68 Jul 6 '12 at 14:56
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