RE: Don't bash Microsoft (was A89: Sim City 68k)
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RE: Don't bash Microsoft (was A89: Sim City 68k)
First a quick technical correction...
> If you've ever used a college residential network, you
> know of a certain file transfer protocol called NFS.
> You might know it as "Network Neighborhood" or
> "Microsoft Networking".
No. For "Microsoft Networking", SMB (or as they now like to call it, CIFS)
is used. NFS is a protocol mainly used on Un*x machines, and is not natively
supported on Windows. (It may be included in W2k services for Unix - I can't
remember if it got in).
> It is an integral part of so many network functions,
> from corporate to web to academic that there is no
> way itcould ever be outlawed, but it is almost identical
> in function to Napster, save that it's for IPX and
> therefore won't function on wide-area networks or the
> Internet.
NFS runs *only* over IP, not IPX.
SMB/CIFS runs over IP, IPX, NetBEUI and o7thers...
And it is *not* identical to Napster. They natively support only listing and
read/write of files. Any searching is built on top of it. Naptsters main
feature is searching.
> It's primary purpose (at least on college
> camupses) is exactly the same as Napster's.
Incorrect. SMB and NFS together probably fulfill some 95% or more of the
*file sharing* that is done. A majority of this is sharing documents and
program data in corporate networks.
As for college campuses - go check out your Unix workstations when you're
aruond. Chances are very large that large parts of their filesystems are
mounted using NFS (or AFS, which is somewhat similar but hugely much better)
> This
> is one protocol. There are many more examples
> like this I can give. It takes a real idiot to think that
> you can outlaw user-to-user file-sharing programs,
> regardless of the intentions of the author.
That is another thing, though. Have to agree with that.
Now with that said, and no comments on the actual topic, can we take this
off the list? It doesn't exactly have much to do with A-89... Feel free to
comment on my above writings *in private mail*.
//Magnus