What’s the Deal with File Systems?

Think of a file system as the organization's structure for everything saved on a disk. It keeps track of where all the data is stored. Without it, you'd have no easy way to find your files. The VFS is like the interface that helps you navigate through different file systems and see all your data in a user-friendly way.

Don't stress too much about the complexities. In simple terms, a file system organizes your data on storage. Different types like ext4 or NTFS have unique ways of doing this, impacting how files are read and written. Just know that the way it's set up can affect everything from speed to security.

A filesystem can be thought of like the structure inside a house. It sets up walls and rooms (kinda like directories) that help you find things. You can certainly store items without a filesystem, but it would be chaotic and hard to locate anything. Each filesystem has its own set of rules about how data is structured and accessed.

A file system is how the operating system stores and retrieves data from your storage device. When you save a file, the file system knows where to keep it, and when you ask for it back, it knows how to find it. The Virtual File System (VFS) helps manage all the file systems simultaneously and presents them in a neat directory tree for you to interact with.

Sometimes people mix up terms, saying 'file hierarchy' when they mean 'file system.' The hierarchy is like the layout (e.g., folders like /usr, /bin), while the filesystem is about how those folders and files are handled on the disk. Under the hood, ext4 and btrfs may store data differently, which can affect performance and features.