[taylodl]

My experience has been similar to yours and from day one way back in the early 80's I was taught that OSI is a model and that no real-world networking protocol adhered to it. Period end. Forty years ago OSI wasn't taught as a framework or a standard - and this was within 5 years of it being developed! It was always taught as a model to understand the different aspects and functions of machine to machine communications. That's it and that's all!

In fact, it was this model that enabled the development and rapid adoption of the internet. People knew and understood, from day one, which OSI layer abstractions were collapsed into and managed by which parts of the TCP/IP protocol. People knew and understood, again from day one, where protocols such FTP, HTTP, and SMTP stood in the model. People understood where physical things like routers, bridges and gateways fit in the model and what functions were being served. The OSI model facilitated the explosion in networking that took place in the 80's and 90's - I know because I was there and watched it happen and was utilizing the model in creating solutions at the time!

This author is attacking a Straw Man.