OSNews

Network transparency is good, WHEN it's done in the OS (transparent), and why? Because it makes applications a) more powerful/flexible, and b) simpler.
Why should an MP3 player have code to open a file, play it, and then some more, different code for the case that the data comes in over a network? Just get the data, and play it, allright? So stuff like ftp servers mounted on directories, where all common file access works the same as for local files, is nice. The user will know that it's coming from overseas, if he just mounted that ftp directory.
The OS SHOULD worry about local vs. remote, and prefer local operations. In a distributed sytem/cluster, an approach could be, to migrate workloads to other CPU's in the network as much as possible. Wrong: instead of one CPU doing the thing locally (efficient), it splits the task in parts, and creates a lot of network traffic moving data/code around. A better approach: try to use local resources FIRST, and when those are in full use, THEN try to use remote resources to help speed things. The same effect, but minimises use of the network (=usually the most precious resource/bottleneck)