Linux seems to be a kernel optimized for performance at almost any cost. This is a reasonable goal, it just means that my window manager at work (or any other

Linux seems to be a kernel optimized for performance at almost any cost. This is a reasonable goal, it just means that my window manager at work (or any other interactive thing) comes to a crawl if I'm not careful with what I run. This simply doesn't happen on Mac OS X, although a given application can still bring itself to its knees. And technically throughput per processor may be less optimal than Linux, but it's not obvious to me that this is a problem that needs solving. For one thing, firing off a bunch of compile runs with GCC on my Intel Mac is perfectly smooth, and I can still click on things; whereas, at work, I may have to go for coffee before I can click on my next E-mail message when doing a similar compile. Apple's multi-core strategy is also among the clearest and most successful that I've seen to date. They may actually meet the challenges of interactive responsiveness and total throughput with one system design.