Hameroff described several 10-Gig-optimized features in Longhorn, including a redesigned TCP/IP stack and a driver program designed to make 10-Gig NICs more compatible with Windows. Microsoft's redesign of its TCP/IP stack had far more to do with fixing existing problems and advancing Longhorn in general than it did with specific support for 10 Gig, but happily the one has clearly benefited from the other. Go to http://www.infoworld.com/mp3/IFW_10gig_msft_07-07-06.mp3 to download the interview with Hameroff.

Meanwhile, Johnson discussed Sun's long-time customer partnership related to optimizing and standardizing support for 10 Gig under Solaris, as well as a driver program of its own for these exceptionally fast NICs. Sun, too, has taken a close look at its TCP/IP implementation but was a little cagier about the specifics. Go to http://www.infoworld.com/mp3/IFW_10gig_sun_07-07-06.mp3 to download the interview with Johnson.

Although we tried to find an adequate Linux operating system representative to discuss the future of 10 Gig on Linux, the Penguin community has been quiet on the topic. "We're expecting to see more support for 10 Gig under Linux for specific applications, especially computing clusters," said Paul Lindo, CIO of FB2, a New York-based IT consultancy. "But so far ... none of the big Linux OS platform distributors are really making noise about 10 Gig yet."