Banyan VINES
More info
- Creator
- Banyan Systems
- Released
- Type
- Network operating system
A network operating system whose global directory service was years ahead of everyone else's.
VINES (Virtual Integrated Network Service) was built by Banyan Systems in 1984 on top of a Unix kernel. Its big idea was StreetTalk: a directory service that gave every user, printer and resource a globally unique name across an entire corporate network — something Novell NetWare and, later, Active Directory took years to match.
Technically impressive, commercially run off the road. VINES required Banyan's own protocol stack and competent administrators, and when NetWare and Windows NT grew cheaper and simpler the market collapsed fast. The product was discontinued in the late 1990s. StreetTalk survives as an often-cited case of being "right too early" in networking history.