Fedora 34 may use btrfs transparent zstd compression by default

Fedora Workstation 33 released this year has successfully switched the default file system from EXT4 to Btrfs, and its development team has stated that they will make reasonable use of Btrfs in Fedora. Now, as Fedora 34, which is scheduled to be released next spring, approaches, we can see that it has begun to take advantage of more features provided by Btrfs.

For example, Fedora 34 previously wanted to use DNF/RPM (copy-on-write) with Btrfs. Now, another feature of Btrfs-transparent file-system compression (transparent file-system compression) is considered to be used by default in Fedora 34.

In the months after Fedora 33 was released, Fedora developers have been evaluating Btrfs compression options to obtain a suitable default value. Now they have prepared a proposal for the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee. The main content is that Fedora Workstation 34 will use Btrfs Zstd compression by default.

Enabling Zstd compression for Btrfs helps save disk space and extends the life of modern flash-based storage devices. In addition, depending on the workload, it can also help improve performance. Compared with other compression algorithms, Zstd provides a better compression ratio and speed.