Is it possible that this could become a part of a more all-encompassing Virtual FileSystem implementation like that seen in KDE? (KIOSlaves, etc.) Allowing any application to view data using any protocol is very powerful idea, used well in KDE and I believe becoming implemented in GNOME. However, my concerns with having this protocol layer at the high level of a desktop environment is that performance is probably not what it could be and non-KDE or non-GNOME apps can't take advantage of it.
So to build an OS with this sort of support from the start would be very beneficial, IMHO. - Josh
