Why Do Operating Systems Suck  Moved from OperatingSystemsDesign
When talking about design of some product, it is important to
compare with past and current research, as opposed to other
commercial products.  For instance, when talking about the
design of a popular automobile, it would be inane to compare it
with other popular automobiles. Rather, one would compare an
automobile design with, say, the original EV-1 produced by
Aerovironment, or the 3-wheeled teardrop-shaped auto produced by
BuckminsterFuller. In fact, one would also compare automobiles
with very different products like airplanes (for aerodynamics),
trucks, trains, bicycles, et cetera.  Similarly, one must
compare an OS design with designs of research OSes in past and
present, rather than comparing Unix against Unix and Unix and
Unix to come to the inane conclusion that "Unix is good". One
should also compare an OS design against other software products
(commercial and research) such as databases, languages, et
cetera.  The WindowsNT design is