One of the main problems for Unix system users who may have been thinking about adopting Microsoft Corp’s forthcoming Windows NT operating system as part of a heterogeneous computing strategy is that NT does not support Unix’s widely-used Network File System protocol or indeed a native Unix file system. Although NT does support the remote procedure call found in the Open Software Foundation’s Distributed Computing Environment, DCE remains an embryonic technology. Unix users with Network File System would have to change over to the unfamiliar – and untried – DCE or find themselves unable to integrate with NT easily. We understand, however, that over the next couple of days Microsoft will formally announce support for the Sun Microsystems Inc PC-NFS networking technology that enables personal computer users to share files and services on Unix systems. SunSelect – Sun’s personal computer-to-Unix linking satellite – demonstrated technology enabling NT users to access Unix systems via PC-NFS at last November’s Comdex Fall trade show (CI No 2,057), and it seems the two have been in discussions ever since.
