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Is there an OS that, instead of a hierarchical filesystem based on directories, uses tags? A problem with directory hierarchies is that a file often belongs into more than one category. Some systems solve this with symbolic links and whatnot where a file appears to exist in two places at once. But is there a system where this is the default behavior? Where all files exist in the same place, but are differentiated and navigated by their tags?

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Part of me thinks this should be a part of the shell and UI and not the filesystem. Because the set of files that require tagging like such is such a small portion of actually files on a file system. – surfasb Oct 23 '11 at 15:16
How so? I see no reason why all files wouldn't use this system. – Core Xii Oct 24 '11 at 7:03
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There have been a few attempts - beos came to mind, as did winfs.

If someone was to implement a metadata filesystem it would probably use something like filesystem resource forks (on OS X) and alternate data streams on windows

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Indeed, NTFS sort of does some of this, too. All files are in the MFT, and directories are just one way that files can be indexed. That's how the on-disc data structures operate, at least. Potentially, other indexes by other MFT attributes can be made. – JdeBP Oct 29 '11 at 22:37
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As long as the file system hierarchy is in a single file system, you can use hard-links and your files will belong to each "tag" directory.

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You can't really hack this into a hierarchical filesystem because you run into problems with filename collisions and a UI not designed for tagging. – Core Xii Oct 23 '11 at 15:11
What you are asking for, i.e. "all files exist in the same place" doesn't seem to provide a solution for filename collisions either. – jlliagre Oct 23 '11 at 20:45
Well you'd probably index the files by their contents, ala hashing, and allow non-unique names. Granted, that is a bit tangent to the actual question. – Core Xii Oct 24 '11 at 7:04
This is certainly also doable with a regular file system. It seems to me that what you are asking for isn't a superset but a but a subset of what is available with today's file system and links. – jlliagre Oct 24 '11 at 21:18
I suppose you could add this to a hierarchical filesystem, but it'd still need major revision of e.g. file open/save dialogs. – Core Xii Oct 25 '11 at 10:38
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