[contextfree]

It's true that core Unix has a degree of conceptual integrity that Microsoft software for example usually lacks†, but I wonder how much that buys you when put in the context of a complete system, running, say, Linux, GNU utilities (whose aesthetic tends to be subtly different), Emacs, X, GNOME, Firefox, OpenOffice, and probably some distro-specific system utilities/duct tape written in Perl or Python or something. I'm not sure the conceptual divergence can be written off as a fault of the divergent software, either.

† Microsoft tends to be fairly zealous about preserving backward compatibility while at the same time being aggressive about pursuing new trends. It's very difficult to do both of those and maintain conceptual integrity at the same time.