[thwarted]

I disagree. Write a kernel driver on Linux and NT and you'll see how much more superior the NT I/O subsystem is.

Can programming against the userspace interface the I/O subsystem really be compared to programming against the kernel driver interface to I/O subsystem? In Linux, kernel drivers have access to structures, services, and layers that userspace doesn't. And can these be compared between a monolithic and a micro-kernel approach, other than what has been debated ad nauseam for micro/monolithic kernels in general (not just used for I/O)?

[trentnelson]

I didn't make my point particularly well there to be honest. Writing an NT driver is incredibly more complicated than an equivalent Linux one, because your device needs to be able to handle different types of memory buffers, support all the Irp layering quirks, etc.

I just meant that writing an NT kernel driver will really give you an appreciation of what's going on behind the scenes in order to facilitate awesome userspace things like overlapped I/O, threadpool completion routines, etc.