[vox] Why Linux FS doesn't need defragmenting

[Jimbo]

I have a question that, in a sense, is related to this article.  Forgive my 
ignorance as this might sound really, really stupid:

>From what I have absorbed in the past a hard drive is just a big floppy with 
a writing arm built in.  It is made of what appears to be a tape like 
material but a stack of them, right?

Anyways...Why is it that this type of storage device is still used?  Seems 
crude in that we have gone a long ways with electronics.  Couldn't they just 
use some sort of electronic device?  It would seem that a large ic chip like 
device could be able to be read and rewrote with ease.

I thought about this as I was thinking about computers on cars (thats my 
bag, I'm a mechanic).  The car computer has a basic imput/output system, 
remembers driving habits and detect problems which stores info on it as well 
as freeze frame data for someone like me to read it with a scanner.  I know 
that these computers have no hard drive so why can't a regular personal 
computer have this as well?

Jim

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Kendrick" <nbs at sonic.net>
To: "LUGOD" <vox at lists.lugod.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2006 11:45 AM
Subject: [vox] Why Linux FS doesn't need defragmenting


>
> A friend of mine asked me about defragmenting Linux drives, and I never
> had a good idea as to why you didn't really need to.
>
> Well, he found this page, and just shared it with me :^)
>
> 
> http://geekblog.oneandoneis2.org/index.php/2006/08/17/why_doesn_t_linux_need_defragmenting
>
> Enjoy!
>
> -- 
> -bill!
> bill at newbreedsoftware.com
> http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/
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