I seldom disagree with Bruce, but this one is of interest to me:
 
> There's nothing intrinsically wrong with Unix; it's a reasonably
> well-designed multitasking operating system.
 
My contention is that UNIX was never actually "designed", much less
designed well.  If I read the history of it's evolution (which may
be well distorted with time) UNIX was not originally developed to
be multi-tasking or multi-user.  Both features were afterthoughts.
Indeed, UNIX was originally hacked to support a game of sorts from
GE's Multics.  So for a single purpose, single user OS, it could be
classified as a "reasonably well-designed" OS.
 
The "design by the seat of your pants" hit full stride when UNIX began
to invade academia and every freshman programmer added a new feature
or utility (and later a file system).  The undisciplined coding was
compounded by the lack of support only available from a part time,
transient and volunteer development squad/class.
 
By bad natured bitching aside, I like UNIX.  If we take the definition
of quaint to be "pleasingly odd", then that is why I like UNIX, for in
the world of OSs, it is quaint . . . but not well-designed.
 
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The thoughts expressed herein are mine and do not reflect those of my
employer, or anyone with common sense.