Leo, you are probably right that price has nothing to do with the answer to the question which device can do NAT better. Still, I do not see any reason why IOS cannot do NAT from an operating system perspective. First of all, it obviously can, since it does it. Second, it's not like I've put IOS in my notebook and try to use it to post to this forum. [My notebook came with XP (hehe). Could have been Vista, but in my country we say 'ta vista svista', which means 'erase the vista' (hehe). I also have ubuntu installed, but honestly I use any OS that fits purpose, no problem with that (hehe), although I might have preferred the IOS look and feel (hehe)]. I tend to agree with Peter's original post on this point. That is, this is a matter of hardware and not software. Bugs are part of the ecosystem, but, assuming an ideal world without cockroaches, a high performance CPU, caches, plenty of memory, high performance bus or even switched internal interconnect are hard(ware) things to beat, no matter which operating system you are using. My notebook might do NAT better than an old cisco device model and costs less than 400 euros. I think this is an unfair comparison since hardware technology evolves (when also boosted by wide audience sales) and the expensive coolest device of the present becomes the legacy thing of the future (that's why I don't have cool gadgets). Also, what kind of OS you put in an embedded device depends on many factors. We had VxWorks (or even no OS), then embedded Linux came. But then again, it all comes down back to price and not OS quality, and we wanted to avoid the price discussion.
By the way, why do you people still do NAT? In Networkers 2008 I've heard IPv6 is a necessity because we are running out of addresses. In 2009 they pushed it a little bit and said that if you want to stay within competition, offer new services, generate revenue, etc (always nice to hear this kind of stuff, very entertaining) in this financial situation, you must go with IPv6. I guess this year they will say that you either do IPv6 or die. I always love it when people are trying to sell stuff to me. They make me feel a real consumer and I was having some doubts about this aspect of my personality.
