[TUHS] OT: critical Intel design flaw

[paul.winalski@gmail.com (Paul Winalski)]

On 1/3/18, Clem Cole <clemc at ccc.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 3, 2018 at 12:28 PM, Bakul Shah <bakul at bitblocks.com> wrote:
>
> Similarly, Microsoft since Windows (not OS/2) was the UI for NT in the end;
> Microsoft had to put hacks into the make user code work and NT became a
> hybrid (like Mach 2.x) and never pushed the pure kernel that Mica (NT's
> origin had been). To do so would have broken code which at the time was
> something they were loath to do.

Microsoft's developers had a "hook and hack" mentality with regard to
the OS.  This goes back to the days of DOS, when once your application
started, you could do anything you pleased, as long as you put the OS
kernel back to its clean state before you exited.  Dave Cutler fought
tooth and nail against any attempts to insert hooks in the NT
microkernel, or to muddle the layered design.  But after Dave left
day-to-day NT development, things got muddied up.

-Paul W.