[Beowulf] SMB Network performance

[orion at cora.nwra.com]

>
>
> It's not the desktop, IMO.  It is the entire software stack.  From the
kernel up though the application layer with a predictable hardware and 
firmware layer underneath.  Even in the days of the buggy Apple
firmware, Macs worked exceptionally well because the buggy layer would
still act predictably.
>
> Desktops are no good if the applications calling them cannot get run
reliably.  That reliability requires properly functioning layers all
throughout the system stack.
>
> In the Linux and Windows worlds this is most obvious in the
> device drivers, particularly with networking.

Speaking of... Has anyone else noticed that SMB client performance on the
Mac is lousy?  I'm seeing 2-3x slower write performance to my Linux Samba
server compared with Linux and Windows clients.

- Orion