| I am not up to date on the latest kernels - I last wrote an NT driver in 2002 (Win2K/XP compatible), but based on that experience I beg to differ. My no-stalgia: It was an overengineered beast at the time, with an original grand vision that wasn't performing well enough, and seemed to be fixed with duct tape. The Video Driver + GDI, originally conceived to be outside the kernel, was too slow - so it was moved back in, causing a lot of problems. The IO subsystem was nicely abstracted with IRPs. Except it was too slow, so they added the "FastPath" interface, which fixed the speed but made it impossible to safely unload or stack drivers. IIRC, they were the main reason for the "PlugFest" parties, where microsoft would invite vendors to come to place and then install their drivers in random orders and to debug the collisions -- the fact that microsoft needed to organize these parties is an indication of how bad it was. The POSIX subsystem was removed in XP/Server 2002. Perhaps you mean SFU? That was discontinued in 2004. Oh, you mean SUA (nee Interix). Well, that was removed in 8.1. And your experience might be different, but "incredibly performant" is quite the opposite of my experience with the POSIX subsystem. |