In light of https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Drops-AppleTalk , I'm a big fan of replacing the functionality in userspace:) (I've similarly thought that it would be helpful to port as many of Linux's filesystems to FUSE so when they get dropped users can just switch to that)

FUSE is great for portability, too – with some work you get macOS, Haiku, the BSDs...

Also, just learned of GlobalTalk ie people bridging their AppleTalk network to the Internet! https://marchintosh.com/globaltalk.html

If this comparison helps: before deprecation, the last practical use for AppleTalk was file sharing, e.g. legacy Time Machine. Apple dropped it, and encourages SMB and WebDAV.

AppleTalk is a protocol that was used on classic/vintage Macs (think: early/late 1980s, 1990s) to create local networks. The wikipedia page [0] has a good historical overview, including the parallel rise of ethernet / tcp/ip (which won).

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleTalk

How does TailTalk relate to this? Does it re-implement it?

Using TailTalk on my modern Mac, I can expose a file share accessible to my Macintosh Plus, which has a simulated SCSI Ethernet adapter bridged to a Pi Pico 2W's wireless connection via a BlueSCSI.

Yep, looks like it - it's a from-scratch reimplementation that you can use in your own software to talk to devices on AppleTalk networks.

Have been waiting for something like this so I could decommission my old Raspberry Pi Netatalk solution. Thank you!