Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!caen!uwm.edu!ogicse!mintaka!spdcc!rbraun
From: rbraun@spdcc.COM (Rich Braun)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.novell
Subject: Re: NFS Support in NetWare
Message-ID: <6638@spdcc.SPDCC.COM>
Date: 27 Feb 91 16:01:16 GMT
References: <1991Feb21.234900.11916@novell.com> <6614@spdcc.SPDCC.COM>
Organization: Kronos Inc., Waltham, Mass.
Lines: 40

keith@ca.excelan.com (Keith Brown) writes:
>>NetWare doesn't carry with it all the additional baggage that
>>makes UNIX such a great interactive OS. NetWare does no swapping and
>>paging to disk,...

dyer@spdcc.COM (Steve Dyer) writes:
>While I am willing to suspend my disbelief (until I try it) that a
>Netware NFS server might be superior to a UNIX NFS server, a lot of what
>you say is a red herring.

There was also an earlier statement to the effect that a Novell server
with the Novell NFS NLM was the 'cheapest' way to get a high-performance
high-capacity NFS server onto your TCP/IP LAN.

It's not only not the cheapest, it's also quite deficient.  How many
Unix people are going to like the filenaming limitations imposed by
the DOS filesystem?  (eight characters, then a dot, then three more;
characters like comma and plus are restricted; etc.)

My challenge was answered privately by e-mail from a Novell person who
said, in effect, laugh at us later if we don't manage to rake in the
bucks on this one.  And also suggesting they're justified in setting the
price high because Unix users have come to expect NFS server capability
as standard issue, but Novell has to charge the money for NFS users because
they don't think standard Netware users should have to subsidize NFS users.

I forgot to mention in my earlier article that SCO, Sun, et al sell an
NFS _client_ along with their _server_.  Is the Novell solution also
going to offer a DOS _client_ NFS package?  I doubt that Novell is in
that business.

I'd suspect a company like Atlantix should be well-positioned to mount a
serious challenge in this area.  Hey Atlantix, would you like some source
code for a Novell-compatible NFS server?

By way of disclaimer, I'd like to point out that my company is not in the
business of providing DOS or Unix network solutions to its customers;
I'm merely an interested user and observer.

-rich