Fedora Project Podcast

15: Butter Up: Exploring Fedora's Transparent Compression

Fedora Project Podcast

Show Notes

Chris Murphy, a developer working on BTRFS, explains the new transparent compression feature that will be enabled by default in Fedora 34 which automatically compresses files before writing to disk for space savings. He discusses the compression algorithm (zstd), performance impact, expected space savings, how to check compression stats, and the future roadmap for Butter FS features like snapshots/rollbacks.

The Fedora Podcast brings you exclusive interviews and deep dives with the innovators and contributors who make the Fedora community amazing! From cutting-edge technologies to the production of the Fedora distribution itself, we chat with the minds behind it all. Whether you're a longtime user or just curious, there’s always something new to discover in the world of Fedora.

🎬 New to Fedora? Get Started Here: https://fedoraproject.org/

🎙️ Follow the Fedora Podcast: https://podcast.fedoraproject.org

💬 Join the Conversation: https://matrix.to/#/#podcast:fedoraproject.org

🌐 Become Part of the Fedora community: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/join/

🔗Episode Resources

Chris Murphy: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Chrismurphy

BTRFS Fedora Wiki: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Btrfs

BTRFS transparent compression: https://fedoramagazine.org/fedora-workstation-34-feature-focus-btrfs-transparent-compression

BTRFS snapshots: https://fedoramagazine.org/btrfs-snapshots-backup-incremental

Sponsor: Tux Digital Network (https://tuxdigital.com/)

Special Thanks:

Ryan Gorley (https://freehive.com/) for his work on the Fedora Podcast artwork!

Tricknology: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3FDvVTwe3XjmdNyKoqvHR6?si=OAwevZVhS9mNS7HnP2J8wA Special Guest: Chris Murphy. Sponsored By: Tux Digital Network

More from Fedora Project Podcast

Oct 15, 2026

Red Hat announced Hummingbird at Summit back in May. Five months later there are Hummingbird containers in the wild, a spin of Fedora Linux built on the same principles, and a full Bluefin ISO built on top of it.

Sep 23, 2026

Framework does not have a storefront you can walk into. What they do have is a laptop you can order that arrives with Fedora already on it, and a screwdriver in the box.

Sep 10, 2026

Fedora has a job whose entire purpose is the health of the community around the distribution, and this month a new person took it over. So we got both of them on at once.

Aug 25, 2026

A couple of episodes ago we talked to Carl George about EPEL, and half that conversation ended up being about CentOS. The questions kept coming, so we made a whole episode out of it.

Aug 11, 2026

Fedora is a huge project with a lot of doors in. In this episode Eric and Noah walk through the different ways to find your people in Fedora, from real time chat on Matrix to long form discussion on Fedora Discourse, reading Fedora Magazine, getting a friendly hand from the Join SIG, and catching up on project wide activity through This Week in Fedora. If you have ever wondered where to start, this one is for you.

See all episodes →