The article below will be a hoot for those of us who’ve compiled our own operating systems, rather than buy or download them. I think the author unfairly blames the flood of new developers for the lack of real design, though. The lack of design predates that flood, as examples in the article show.  That said, I’m a fan of real design, and this kind of thing drives me crazy, nearly every day!

http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2349257