Is this just a rant or did I miss further content that gives examples of the "many custom, special, weird and quirky ways that require special-case solutions in the code"? As a long time Windows developer I know of several, but am genuinely interested in hearing about more from the perspective of someone who's been "in the trenches" of several OS's. eg:

- What does Windows get right?

- What's it get miserably wrong?

- Is the trouble that all the other OS's are more POSIX-like and this is the odd one out?