> i disagree with the contention that the model in unix is lame. To the 
> contrary, it is the minimum mechnism necessary to implement any other
> model on top of it.

so is a bag of sand, or a front panel with lots of 1/0 switches and lights.

don't get me wrong, i like the unix model.  however, there's an appropriate
balance between making things simple so as not to constrain the things that
will be built with/on them, and making things complex so that there is much
expressive power but many basic decisions unbendably premade for you.  unix
is an example of the first.  windows/nt, vms, and mac/os are examples of the
second.  perl, somehow, is an example of both.