🚀 go-pugleaf

David Maynard wrote:

> > The fact of the matter is that the main benefit of TCP/IP is
> > that it's routable..
> 
> Ain't no 'little' thing.

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NetBEUI (NetBIOS Extended User Interface) is a new, extended
version of NetBIOS lets computers communicate within a local
area network.  NetBEUI is the best performance choice for
communication within a single LAN.  It does not support the
routing of messages to other networks.  It is recommended to
install both NetBEUI and TCP/IP in each computer and set the
server up to use NetBEUI for communication within the LAN and
TCP/IP for communication beyond the LAN.

http://cob.bloomu.edu/afundaburk/personal/NBEA%20-%20Let's%20Go%20Wireless%20Presentation.ppt
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Look people.

Microsoft has a single over-riding agenda - to make money (like most
corporations).  However, their main product (desktop OS's) aren't like
most consumer goods (ie like a car).  How do you know when an OS is
"worn out" ?  Well, for Microsoft (which is really (in the real world)
the only game in town when it comes to OS's) they can call the shots
to some degree by forcing the obselence of older os's by forcing
certain new technologies into the market (the migration from Win-95 to
Win-98 was coaxed by such things as USB and FAT-32).

This is really just another way to say that a good deal of the claimed
differences between different versions of Windows is marketing
bullshit designed to instill a degree of psycological bias against the
older OS.  It creates a notion that the older OS is "worn out" in an
almost physical way.

The other aspect of what Microsoft does is to gear Windows first and
formost towards their best paying customer - that being large
corporations (and the gov't).  They want work-station security, they
want (need) routable protocals, they want remote administration
capability, they want permission-based user hirarchies.  So Windows
(2K and XP) comes "out of the box" with all sorts of services and
ports configured as active by default. Which leads to the next point:

Microsoft values reducing the need for customer support far more than
workstation security.  The default settings for 2K and XP are set to
be most appropriate for a large corporation (with IT staff and
fire-wall).  For the small company or home user, XP is (and was) a
disaster in terms of viral and trojan infections.

What's this got to do with NetBEUI vs TCP/IP?

It's Microsoft's "keep it simple stupid" mentality.  If TCP will work
everywhere on a network (large, small, across routers, etc) then it
becomes the default protocal and bye bye NetBEUI.  It will mean fewer
support calls for MS from fortune 500 companies.  It doesn't mean
NetBEUI is bad or inferior (it seems it may have a performance edge on
small networks vs TCP, and it certainly has a security edge over
TCP).  It just means MS made a decision motivated by making their life
simpler.  I'm sure a big part of it was to force some degree of
incompatibility between exiting networks (with NT4 servers) which
would force those systems into the garbage in favor of XP-pro.

It's funny how jaded we all pretty much are towards Microsoft the
corporate pirahna fish that they are, how they use strong-arm tactics
to kill competition, yet we let their mantra of OS obselescence sink
into our heads exactly according to their plan.

> Remove it and you've got an antiquated, severely limited, 
> protocol.

As if TCP/IP isin't "antiquated".