> >Wasn't Multics kind of a "one solution, done right" operating system?
> 
> Isn't Unix (and hence NetBSD) trying to do generally the same ?
> One of the rules of Unix programming has always been
> "a program does ONE thing and does it well", right ?

No, sorry, that's exactly the opposite.   The idea in Multics, AFAIK
(and I'm no expert) was to have a well-designed whole, rather than
many individually well-designed parts.   The reason for the
distinction is that individually well-designed parts don't necessarily
fit together well.   I think the Unix philosophy is generally to have
lots of well-designed parts that aren't specifically designed to fit
together, and to make some effort to have a common design philosophy
for the parts so that, out of sheer coincidence, they do happen to
work pretty well together.   This is a good approach, and it's served
us well, but it does have its weaknesses.

			       _MelloN_