Mind you I don't have access to Microsoft code, so this is all indirect, and a lot of this knowledge was when I was fledgling developer.
The Windows NT code was engineered to be portable across many different architectures--not just X86--so it has a hardware abstraction layer. The kernel only ever communicated to the device-driver implementation through this abstraction layer; so the kernel code itself was isolated.
That doesn't mean the device drivers were running in user-land privilege, but it does mean that the kernel code is quite stable and easy to reason about.
When Microsoft decided to compromise on this design, I remember senior engineers--when I first started my career--being abuzz about it for Windows NT 4.0 (or apparently earlier?).
Before spidering the site for offline reading, be aware:
“Rather than secure rights to the recommended papers, we have simply provided links to Google Scholar searches that should help the reader locate the relevant papers.”
1. You do not talk about Sci-Hub.
2. You do NOT talk about Sci-Hub.
3. If a download says "Stop," goes limp,
or taps out, that download is over.
4. Only two tries per mirror.
5. One download at a time.
6. Shirt and shoes optional.
7. Downloads will continue until publicly funded
research is widely distributed.
8. If this is your first time at Sci-Hub, you
have to download something interesting,
actually read at least part of it, learn
something, and then fight ignorance and/or
stupidity with it.
Having very older parents, what an important use case!
Long gone are the days of writing a family update, including physical photos, and putting them in the post.
Fortunately, I’m able to guide
my parents in their tech usage. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be their age and have nobody to do the same. The sheer isolation… It’s horrible to contemplate.
