All one needs to look at for proof of multiple filing systems existing on the same system is Windows--when NTFS came out, FAT managed to peacefully coexist.
Yes, HFS as a whole is getting rather old (will be 25 in January with HFS+ turning 13 the same month). In some respects, I'm surprised they've kept it as long as they have, especially given how crude it is compared to the now-mature Mac OS X.
Apple knew they had to make improvements on MFS given its shortcomings, and that took only two years to figure out. It was a full 12 years before they changed HFS to HFS+ (from January 1986 with System 3.0 - January 1998 with OS 8.1). However, the Mac OS was still the same basic software from 3.0 to 8.1, with many features added along the way (especially in 7.0).
HFS+ almost seemed to be a patchwork fix of sorts. It's basically HFS with some enhancements, much like how OS 9 was really a heavily upgraded System 7. It was another project I like to call "sedimentary rock" from Apple, a type of project that occurred all too often in the 1990s. New layers were added on top of old ones, just like we saw in the OS, with software such as AppleWorks, and even with computers (where old boards were used for new architectures). With OS X, we saw the sedimentary rock shatter to bits.
My fear is that Apple is in danger of doing it all again, except now we're dealing with an eroding rock (HFS+) underneath our currently building sediment (OS X). They need to modernize this file system and at this point I'd say to redo it from scratch so long as compatibility for HFS+ is retained. Apple needs to keep ahead of the competition and also must remember how powerful the OS running atop the eroding rock is. (They also need to re-write everything occasionally to prevent 17 year old, nine-layered sedimentary rocks from forming).
HFS support basically did away with floppies, which were obsolete 11 years before Snow Leopard even came out, but HFS+ support will be needed for years to come due to the amount of hard drives, backup devices, and removable media solutions formatted with it.
(NOTE: I'm going with the version number of the System file, not the "System Software" release here. System and Finder numbers were different during the mid-80s and it's split in the community as to what to refer to these releases as; I always use the System version number).
Yes, HFS as a whole is getting rather old (will be 25 in January with HFS+ turning 13 the same month). In some respects, I'm surprised they've kept it as long as they have, especially given how crude it is compared to the now-mature Mac OS X.
Apple knew they had to make improvements on MFS given its shortcomings, and that took only two years to figure out. It was a full 12 years before they changed HFS to HFS+ (from January 1986 with System 3.0 - January 1998 with OS 8.1). However, the Mac OS was still the same basic software from 3.0 to 8.1, with many features added along the way (especially in 7.0).
HFS+ almost seemed to be a patchwork fix of sorts. It's basically HFS with some enhancements, much like how OS 9 was really a heavily upgraded System 7. It was another project I like to call "sedimentary rock" from Apple, a type of project that occurred all too often in the 1990s. New layers were added on top of old ones, just like we saw in the OS, with software such as AppleWorks, and even with computers (where old boards were used for new architectures). With OS X, we saw the sedimentary rock shatter to bits.
My fear is that Apple is in danger of doing it all again, except now we're dealing with an eroding rock (HFS+) underneath our currently building sediment (OS X). They need to modernize this file system and at this point I'd say to redo it from scratch so long as compatibility for HFS+ is retained. Apple needs to keep ahead of the competition and also must remember how powerful the OS running atop the eroding rock is. (They also need to re-write everything occasionally to prevent 17 year old, nine-layered sedimentary rocks from forming).
HFS support basically did away with floppies, which were obsolete 11 years before Snow Leopard even came out, but HFS+ support will be needed for years to come due to the amount of hard drives, backup devices, and removable media solutions formatted with it.
(NOTE: I'm going with the version number of the System file, not the "System Software" release here. System and Finder numbers were different during the mid-80s and it's split in the community as to what to refer to these releases as; I always use the System version number).