Changes to The Fundamental Failings of Microsoft Windows between r13 and r14
'''Why Microsoft Windows Can Never Be Fixed'''
Microsoft Windows is a poorly designed system. Most people would agree with this statement and cite implementation issues such as poor security, poor performance, and poor support systems. However, these issues can be addressed and solved over time. Microsoft Windows however, will always be a poorly designed system due to fundamental flaws in its design. These flaws are so fundamental that most Microsoft Windows administrators and users do not even understand that they are flaws at all -- instead they think of the limitations as features or do not think of them at all, and just accept them as ''the way things are''.
1. '''Drive Letters'''
11. Why they are a failure --> 11. Why they are a failure:
111. Drive letters are a very distinctive feature of Microsoft Windows -- no other modern operating system uses them. There is a reason for that. Drive letters are a failure. They do not add value and they provide an artificial constraint on path names. Consider the path "`A:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32`", the "A:" is the drive letter specifier and it contains only information we do not care about that might be related to the physical hardware of the system (which we would like to be abstracted away).
11. Why they can never be removed --> 11. Why they can never be removed:
111. Well, they actually CAN be removed as they have been Microsoft Windows CE and Microsoft Windows Mobile. It would take a lot of reworking, especially of mounting network volumes (which are typically done with the scope of a particular session), and the end result would be unrecognized by users.
11. Notes --> 11. Notes:
111. Some have argued that it is possible to overcome this limitation by treating "C:" as the root node. This is apparently not possible to do due to the way network shares are handled.
2. '''Different Types of Executables'''
22. Why they are a failure:
22. Why they can never be removed:
22. Notes:
22. Graphical versus Service versus Text Mode --> 222. Graphical versus Service versus Text Mode
22. Makes it impossible to have one executable to execute in different manners according to context. --> 222. Makes it impossible to have one executable to execute in different manners according to context.
3. '''Open Files may not be Deleted'''
33. Why this behavior is a failure:
33. Why this behavior can never be removed:
33. Notes:
33. This is just retarded -- there's no reason not to allow this operation. --> 333. This is just retarded -- there's no reason not to allow this operation.
Windows users are the real prisoners as described in the [http://web.mit.edu/~simsong/www/ugh.pdf | UNIX-HATERS Handbook].
Only in r13
Only in r14 --> Modified slightly between r13 and r14