Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1758253AbYBEAZd (ORCPT ); Mon, 4 Feb 2008 19:25:33 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1757353AbYBEAZY (ORCPT ); Mon, 4 Feb 2008 19:25:24 -0500 Received: from smtp2.linux-foundation.org ([207.189.120.14]:52942 "EHLO smtp2.linux-foundation.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1756881AbYBEAZX (ORCPT ); Mon, 4 Feb 2008 19:25:23 -0500 Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2008 16:24:33 -0800 (PST) From: Linus Torvalds To: Matt Mackall cc: Alan Cox , "Nicholas A. Bellinger" , James Bottomley , Vladislav Bolkhovitin , Bart Van Assche , Andrew Morton , FUJITA Tomonori , linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org, scst-devel@lists.sourceforge.net, Linux Kernel Mailing List , Mike Christie Subject: Re: Integration of SCST in the mainstream Linux kernel In-Reply-To: <1202170060.17934.142.camel@cinder.waste.org> Message-ID: References: <1201639331.3069.58.camel@localhost.localdomain> <47A05CBD.5050803@vlnb.net> <47A7049A.9000105@vlnb.net> <1202139015.3096.5.camel@localhost.localdomain> <47A73C86.3060604@vlnb.net> <1202144767.3096.38.camel@localhost.localdomain> <47A7488B.4080000@vlnb.net> <1202145901.3096.49.camel@localhost.localdomain> <1202151989.11265.576.camel@haakon2.linux-iscsi.org> <20080204224314.113afe7b@core> <1202170060.17934.142.camel@cinder.waste.org> User-Agent: Alpine 1.00 (LFD 882 2007-12-20) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1237 Lines: 35 On Mon, 4 Feb 2008, Matt Mackall wrote: > > But ATAoE is boring because it's not IP. Which means no routing, > firewalls, tunnels, congestion control, etc. The thing is, that's often an advantage. Not just for performance. > NBD and iSCSI (for all its hideous growths) can take advantage of these > things. .. and all this could equally well be done by a simple bridging protocol (completely independently of any AoE code). The thing is, iSCSI does things at the wrong level. It *forces* people to use the complex protocols, when it's a known that a lot of people don't want it. Which is why these AoE and FCoE things keep popping up. It's easy to bridge ethernet and add a new layer on top of AoE if you need it. In comparison, it's *impossible* to remove an unnecessary layer from iSCSI. This is why "simple and low-level is good". It's always possible to build on top of low-level protocols, while it's generally never possible to simplify overly complex ones. Linus -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/