"Performance is not the only consideration - local-only would remove a lot of design & implementation complexity. (similar to local pipe vs network socket etc)"

"Performance is not the only consideration - local-only would remove a lot of design & implementation complexity. (similar to local pipe vs network socket etc)" Being network-transparent does not mean being complicated. See the Plan9 window systems: http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/4th_edition/papers/812/ http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/4th_edition/papers/812/ http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/3rd_edition/rio/ http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/3rd_edition/rio/