Getting grubby with ZFS

“The GRUB bootloader is widely used to get Linux (and other)
systems running. Its flexibility and configurability make it a
logical choice for many types of computers, as does its “just
works” factor: your editor cannot be the only one to smile when he
realizes how long it has been since the last “I forgot to run LILO
and my new kernel won’t boot” episode. One of GRUB’s nice features
is its ability to understand filesystem structures and find
bootable kernels on the fly. So the addition of support for another
filesystem type would not normally be a noteworthy event. When that
filesystem is ZFS, though, people will pay attention.

“ZFS was developed by Sun Microsystems, and is now owned by
Oracle. It offers some nice features that Linux does not (yet) have
in a production-quality filesystem. ZFS, like the rest of Solaris,
is licensed under the CDDL, which is not considered to be
compatible with the GPLv3 license used by GRUB. Over the years, ZFS
has also been the subject of a fair amount of dark murmuring with
regard to a large pile of associated software patents. For these
reasons, there has never been a serious push to get ZFS support
into Linux.”

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