Re:Good Distributed Filesystems? (Score 2, Interesting)

Many people believe that the salient problem with AFS is that it violates unix semantics. AFS has a program called "fs" that facilitates dealing with metadata like permissions, etc. For example, chmod doesn't do anything in the AFS environment; you need "fs sa" instead.

On the other hand, if GFS doesn't do something intelligent about security, then we're left with the same fundamental problem that NFS has. Namely, we need to presume that it operates within a local environment in which all users on the inside are trusted. (Insert end-to-end argument here.)

Obviously the idea of "secure network" is a myth, and when I first glanced at the headline on Slashdot, I was hoping that GFS would be a step in the right direction toward a secure filesystem that actually stands a chance of being implemented in servers like the ones produced by NetApp. I guess I am disappointed.