What happens when this replaces RAM? (Score 1)

Even if this particular rumor isn't true, it still looks as if solid-state memory will become competitive with hard disk drives in the near future (perhaps five to ten years).

Now imagine if this continues and non-volatile solid-state memory becomes price- and performance-competitive with ordinary RAM as well as with hard drive memory. Remember those old introduction-to-computers books back in the 1980s: the reason why we have disk drives is because main memory loses its contents after a power cycle. In other words, disk drives exist as a crutch for insufficiently-advanced technology (viz., RAM needs constant power).

It may take a while for non-volatile RAM to replace volatile RAM, but it will happen. Now, think about what that would mean for operating system design.

File systems exist because all of that disk drive storage needs to be organized. If RAM is non-volatile, then disk drives (whether platters or solid-state) will not be needed for anything except removable media (compact discs, ZIP disks, USB drives, et cetera). In this situation, using file systems for anything other than archival purposes would be anachronistic.

Now consider this tenet of the Unix catechism: Everything is a file. When (not if, when) file systems become obsolete, Unix will be ripe for replacement.

Of course, people will argue that Unix will survive, and it will, but that's not the point. The design of Unix presumes a state of affairs that will not obtain forever.