History
The native OpenVMS file system is descended from older DEC operating systems, and is similar in many ways. A major difference is the layout of directories. These file systems all provided some form of rudimentary non-hierarchical directory structure, typically based on assigning one directory per user account. Under RSTS/E, each user account was represented by two numbers, a pair, and had one associated directory. Special system files, such as program executables and the OS itself, were stored in the directory of a reserved system account.
While this was suitable for PDP-11 systems, which possessed limited permanent storage capacity, VAX systems with much larger hard drives required a more flexible method of file storage: hierarchical directory layout in particular, the most notable improvement in ODS-2.
They are "similar" because they had the same designer Dave Cutler, originally from Digital Equipment Corporation. Dave later went to Microsoft.
Read more about this topic: Files-11
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