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iSCSI initiator in Mountain Lion
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What does iSCSI have to do with hardware exactly ? 
Why would a "hardware" vendor be required to implement things that just use your network interface card (which can be your wifi card in fact) if that vendor doesn't sell you any hardware ?
Anyway, someone else bothered to implement a iSCSI client stack, dunno if it works on Lion or ML, haven't bothered to look it up :
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/03/13/free-iscsi-initiator-for-os-x-now-available/
Why would a "hardware" vendor be required to implement things that just use your network interface card (which can be your wifi card in fact) if that vendor doesn't sell you any hardware ?
Anyway, someone else bothered to implement a iSCSI client stack, dunno if it works on Lion or ML, haven't bothered to look it up :
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/03/13/free-iscsi-initiator-for-os-x-now-available/
Its used in NAS units, i.e., hardwareWhat does iSCSI have to do with hardware exactly ?
Here's the wiki for you read up on it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISCSI
Since apple does not provide any hardware that could benefit from iSCSI there is no motivation for them to include it in OSX
And TCP/IP is used in routers, it's not left up to the router people to implement TCP/IP in OS X.
(that was my point really).
Again, what does iSCSI have to do with hardware ? (no need to read the wiki on it, I'm quite well versed on iSCSI, targets and initiators alike). It's a network protocol for SANs that uses your own Network Interface Card instead of a hardware based HBA (though you can implement iSCSI HBAs).
Seems to me you need to read up on iSCSI a bit, you seem to think it's limited to storage boxes.
I never said it was limited to storage boxes, I'm just making the statement that apple generally does not provide drivers or software on hardware that it does not produce.
You seem to have an issue with that conjecture - so be it. I'm not going to derail this thread with an endless debate.
My point is that iSCSI is not a driver for hardware. It's a protocol stack, it belongs in the Kernel and Apple should implement it in Darwin, like other OSes have done. You don't need specialized hardware to run iSCSI. You can run it between 2 Macs with the proper protocol stack (both target and initiator support).
iSCSI is not limited to hardware boxes. You seem to have an issue with that conjecture - so be it. I'm not going to derail this thread with an endless debate. (two can play that game).
FWIW, globalSAN iSCSI Initiator for OS X works in Lion, but it's now $90 (instead of free).
That was my point also. iSCSI is a protocol stack, which is definitely gaining in popularity in the last few years, mostly because of NAS devices. All the other major OS have these drivers included. Therefor I wonder what is taking Apple so long. It feels like a major functionality of the OS is missing.
For instance - Apple doesn't make any external USB disk drives (that I am aware of). Now imagine that all the external drives would require a separate driver (not included in the OS) to work. 3+ years old drives simply wouldn't work in Lion anymore if their support was cancelled.
I would like to get a NAS and mount disks via iSCSI and encrypt them with FileVault2 at the same time. Without the extra iSCSI initiator (which is triple the price of Lion itself) this is impossible.
