Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!tim@lll-crg.ARPA@hoptoad.UUCP
From: tim@lll-crg.ARPA@hoptoad.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re:  Need information on NFS
Message-ID: <8612200757.AA28013@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: Sat, 20-Dec-86 02:57:26 EST
Article-I.D.: hoptoad.8612200757.AA28013
Posted: Sat Dec 20 02:57:26 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Dec-86 13:46:19 EST
References: <8612191832.AA09278@topaz.rutgers.edu>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: hoptoad!tim (Tim Maroney)
Organization: Centram Systems, Berkeley
Lines: 22
Approved: tcp-ip@sri-nic.arpa

I really question whether RPC can be considered OS independent.  It is way
too big for microcomputers.  An acquaintance involved with NFS (who has
never worked for Sun) gave me an estimate recently that a client side alone
would take 100K of machine code on a Mac.

I have enormous respect for Sun as both a hardware and a software developer.
But the fact is that it just doesn't make sense to develop a supposedly
machine-independent and OS-independent network file system on a single-OS
network with very powerful machines.  This has left them with an overly
elaborate protocol which is not suited to microcomputers.  PC-NFS is a
client side only, and a hypothetical Mac NFS would be the same way.  This
gives even less functionality than good old FTP; you can't even transfer a
file from a PC to a PC with it!  Client-only implementations fall far short
of the goals of the system.

To be truly OS-independent and machine-independent, NFS would have to be
redesigned from the ground up, and simulatenously developed on more than one
machine and OS.
-- 
Tim Maroney, Electronic Village Idiot
{ihnp4,sun,well,ptsfa,lll-crg,frog}!hoptoad!tim (uucp)
hoptoad!tim@lll-crg (arpa)