OS design

I have been wanting for some time to write a series of articles on various operating systems. I find this sort of stuff fascinating; understanding their history, motives, personalities of the creators, and ultimately technical choices. A lot can be learned from this kind of analysis, both in terms of actual interesting designs, but also as design lessons from the classics.

Currently, only the Research Unix article has been written.

(planned) The design of Multics
The design of Research Unix
(planned) The design of Plan 9
(planned) The design of Inferno
(planned) The design of MS-DOS
(planned) The design of Oberon

I have some others planned, but I'm not announcing what I can't write. I would like to at least touch on AmigaOS, PalmOS, Symbolics Lisp Machines and some oddities like Ten15, but I can't promise they will be as well-researched.

A good article in this same vein but about Windows NT is
Windows NT vs. Unix: A design comparison