[erlang-questions] [Q] Why is Erlang VM better than traditional OS like Linux?

[ok@REDACTED]

Let me make an obvious point:
    the Erlang VM is *NOT* better than operating systems
    like Linux.

The Erlang VM is better at managing hundreds of thousands
of lightweight processes.

Linux (and Solaris and HP-UX and ...) are constrained by
having to present a C/POSIX ABI.  And C is an amazingly
low-level language (operational definition: you cannot
shift the stack because you have no way of telling what
is in it).

The two systems are simply solving different problems
under different constraints.

There's no reason why Linux (or Solaris or HP-UX or ...)
could not offer an additional interface, call it an Elinuxir
interface, that was basically Erlang-like and support that
about as well as the Erlang VM does.

Come to think of it, Linux and Solaris *do* offer an
Elinuxir interface: it's called running the Erlang VM.

So the question is ill-posed.  What exactly is it that
both Linux and the Erlang VM do and the Erlang VM is better
at?