I gotta correct ya champ, that's not exactly true, at least in every case. Its true that the kernel maintainers (Torvalds & gang) maintain some drivers with the kernel, but not all. And what do you mean "tightly tied to the kernel"? Are you saying that if Microsoft made a radical change to their "kernel" (three big DLL's is a kernel, who knew?) architecture those drivers would still work? I doubt it. "Tightly" as a loaded word; either you have an architecture that has many parts yet all works together, or you you don't. That they all work in harmony to deliver a satisfactory user experience- is that "tightly" coupled? Oh, and don't get me started on GNU Hurd...

And yet they do (IBM), becuase there's more than one business model in the world.

Implying the Windows driver model is flawless.

It may be, but it was incredibly bad. McMillan (Lynch?) over killed him with the degenerate angle, and his baron was a sharp as a hammer. Ian McNeice was a far sharper and cunning baron in my opinion, which is much closer to the books. Lynch's baron with the preoccupation with all his little festering wounds and and disgusting nonsense was just odd to me.

You've got to be kidding. Even my girlfriend laughed when she saw that one, and she doesn't know anything about the novels. Lynch WAS NOT right for that story, not at all. The Sci Fi version was "magnificent".

I do. Its been a fairly accurate prediction, yet a prediction none the less. The "law" part is just an anecdotal, off-the-cuff addendum. You want to support your theory that its in fact an actual law, here's room for your proof right here:

Umm, don't you mean Motorola chips? I mean, I'm no Appel expert but I could have sworn appel was big on Motorola procs for the longest time. I always liked the flat model addressing in those...

OMG. I know. Don't care. Not really relevant. Go play kick ball or whatever you do...

You're not even making any sense. People were arrested for using phones in the least intrusive manner possible? Anyway, "airplane mode" is still useful. Probably should be called "non-emission mode" or something though. Like if your at a boring lecture and want to play "wild, wild weasels" during.