Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!ICE9.CEO.DG.COM!LYMAN_CHAPIN From: LYMAN_CHAPIN@ICE9.CEO.DG.COM Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip Subject: Re: OSI does not mean X.25 Message-ID: <61.009074@adam.DG.COM> Date: 5 Apr 88 17:56:38 GMT Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: Organization: The Internet Lines: 40 >> Not to put too fine a point on it, how many different vendors have >> implementations which are either known to interoperate or have been >> through COS certification? I'm glad to know the specs are finished. >> I will be even more happy to know that there are implementations for >> many operating systems and hardware bases which can work together and >> which you can buy off the shelf. Amen! OSI has a LONG way to go before it even comes close to the level of real-product availability of TCP/IP. It would be very difficult (although not impossible) to go out into the world today & put together a fully OSI network using commercially available hardware & software. And, more to the point, there would be very little reason to go to the trouble of doing so - TCP/IP products are readily available, they do the job, and they are (after years of experience and engineering) both efficient and reliable. I am not suggesting that the moment an OSI product becomes available, it is ipso facto preferable to its TCP/IP counterpart! But sooner or later everyone (well, almost everyone) is going to have to figure out how to make OSI networks work. Unfortunately, while a few people have been working to factor the advantages of TCP/IP internetworking into OSI (via ISO TP/IP) in an effort to make OSI viable (i.e. not just X.25 and PTTs), too many other people have been just bashing it (and OSI, like most network architectures, is highly bashable), on the assumption (presumably) that they would never have to live with it. Which brings us to the current state of affairs: commercial OSI gear is X.25-based (and most of it is in Europe), because the people with a vested interest in TP/IP-based OSI haven't been working on OSI - they've been working on TCP/IP, and taking pot shots at OSI whenever possible. Perhaps OSI will fail worldwide, thereby keeping the world safe for TCP/IP. Or, perhaps OSI (based on X.25) will quickly become the norm in the rest of the world (thanks to various combinations of PTTs), while we play catch-up. I like TCP/IP a whole lot better than X.25-OSI; but I would like an internationally viable TP/IP-OSI even better. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lyman Chapin lyman@ice9.ceo.dg.com Data General Corp. [lyman%ice9.ceo.dg.com@relay.cs.net] (617) 870-6056 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------