I am surprised that this did not generate more response. Manes had
previously tried to be funny in Information Week, routinely maligning MS.
But the hardware behaves as it does to support more than one OS (Linux,
anyone?), and Manes knows this and is smart enough to appreciate this
requirement (I wonder how we feels about pressing Alt-F4 from the desktop to
shutdown?). Such problems across versions are why we may see PCs releases in
model years, so that these kinds of inconsistencies can be avoided, at least
within the model. And these variations are no more serious than how very
different the windshield wiper controls are, between models of cars.

An interesting read is the namesake short story, The Machine Stops,
available, among other places, at < http://www.plexus.org/forster.html >.
although that text has errors. A web search will turn up a number of
references, and even sites to discuss technologies that "develops - but not
on our lines"  and "proceeds - but not to our goal".