The design of the current desktop/server operating systems is premised on the use of slow magnetic disks. Two recent developments, (i) RAM capacity nearing 264 bytes, and (ii) the introduction of non-volatile memory (NVRAM), provide an opportunity for a complete re-design of traditional Unix-like operating systems. We discuss some of the issues which support that proposition and offer a few suggestions for areas that may benefit from looking back at pioneering work. We then propose a segmented memory model for the MIPS processor.