Cubase has had System Link for a long long time. I’m not sure if Node or Link was around first. I actually had a 3 computer System Link setup for a couple of years. It worked pretty good. But managing 3 boxes is just too big a PITA to put up with (not to mention heat/noise), when current comps are so kick ass powerful.
And, just like the Logic Node, for every person who finally manages to get it to work well, there are 200 people who can’t keep it running and finally give up. It is such a fringe group of users, that I doubt either company will spend a lot of muscle worrying about.
I used VST Stack on the remote boxes. So, no there wasn’t DAWs on the other side. Just VSTi loaded into banks. One was for VSTi, the other for dedicated Orchestra sample playback.
I actually found System Link to be harder to get running the first time, but functioned better than teleport by far.
I personally think the major DAW vendors are targeting closet enthusiasts, which are primarily using laptops. The pro market will have other solutions that make Node and Link unnecessary. That leaves a narrow group of “pro-sumers” and geeks with #1 the room and #2 the money to mess with setups like this.
by the way, I had no intention to poop on your parade. Your posts recently have been along the lines of “we should be making xxxx”. I’ve just been pointing out that your posts might be better suited to “do we have the ability to”. Because so far, this stuff is being done, and usually has a good reason why it’s where it is.
An example from another thread that you aren’t involved in … someone is suggesting that Steinberg build a full featured external controller instead of the cheapy modular ones they are making now. He suggest the Borgz would make truck loads of cash off that surely! Well, I guess he doesn’t know about Houston. And what a Huge cough success it was.
So, no attack is intended.
Full features studios, regardless of DAW, will have focused machines. A tracking machine, an editing machine, a mastering machine etc. Especially in production studios. I’ve been in plenty of places where they were using networked systems to share data, but I’ve not seen a recording studio who gives a crap about something like Node or Link.
Now, on the artist side, I’m sure that the orchestral arranger guys were all over that technology. That’s what drove me to it. But again, that is a seriously niche market.
Yes … the claim … Go stroll through Logic threads about Node. 
And, I am not knocking it. It is a great solution. But, put software, computers and networks in the same room with an average home user and a 99% failure rate is damn near guarenteed.
Steve, it sounds to me that the problem with performance for you is that you’re using a 32-bit version of an OS with only 4G of RAM. As much as I know you have a bromance with XP, you really should consider upgrading to Win7 64-bit with 8G of RAM. You’d be surprised what it’ll do for the performance of Cubase. 
