Yes you do.

Instant backups (snapshots) alone are worth the investment. Take a snapshot before you update your kernel, and poof super-simple recovery. Working on a project and need to access it remotely? Take a snapshot and then pull it to wherever you are, your dev environment anywhere. (Different use-case from GIT.)

Snapshot /home/ and worry less about computer migrations. ZFS is _THE_ power-user tool of the decade hands down.

Disclaimer: I run FreeBSD on my workstation, laptop, and servers. I've never tried to "mix & match" FreeBSD & Linux ZFS implementations.

I use it on both servers and notebooks. I did not notice increased power usage, but if it matters to you, you should check it.

I use it mainly for non-root volumes because of bad experience in the past (dkms deciding to not build zfs module on first try after update, kernel incompatibility, grub incompatibility, etc.). It's better now, but unless you are experienced I would suggest to not use it for root.

Main reasons I use it:

* checksums - I had undetected data corruption

* snapshots - great addition to backups

* compression

I am using it on my mini server for around 10 years (freebsd 3x3tb as zraid + 10tb disk for casual things) and now on laptop as a root for fedora and I wouldnt part from it. It is the only fs with snapshot capabilities that i fully trust. It didnt crash even once. It is battle proven and I never understood why distributions are not including it as a default or at least as a part of basic installation. Although I would avoid encryption for a few years. Just for any case.

One thing if you start playing with it (I am surprised how little users know about this feature): you can access the snapshot content using hidden "directory" /.zfs/snapshot/snapshotname ;) Just cd into it.

One word of warning, near end of pool capacity it will start to fragment (there is no defragmenter for it, but if they have made implementing encryption, defragmentation shouldnt be far away) and performance will drop. Dont let it happen, always keep 10-20% free and dont forget about old snapshots size.

I used it under BSD for ages, and started using it in Linux many years ago, first as FUSE, then ZOL. It's rock solid.

The only thing is that it "uses" all your RAM, but gives it back as needed. Also, if your volume gets over 90% full, it starts becoming VERY inefficient.

Why would you put ZFS on a laptop? How many drives can you fit into a laptop?

I’m running FreeNas at home with 6x4TB WD Red drives. All my computers back up to FreeNas. My Plex server reads/writes all its media from it as well.

I’m going to switch FreeNas to a Linux server with ZFS at some point.

I wouldn't put zfs anywhere except a server or non root volume, the resource usage is high and if I had to guess it would have an impact on battery life.

Unleas you're into either file systems or installers as a hobby, let others be the early adopters.

I’d do it as it has a lot of neat features. But I’d make sure that laptop had a “large“ (16g or more) amount of ram and a couple cores to spare.

Since I started seriously using it for my home server, I decided that I never want to use any other file system on any of my machines, it's that good. I use it on my desktop machine and will never look back. Snapshotting can be beneficial for any kind of machine for example.