Crash-only software: More than meets the eye
by Valerie Henson July 12, 2006: http://lwn.net/Articles/191059/

Properly implemented, crash-only software produces higher quality, more reliable code; poorly understood it results in lazy programming. Probably the most common misconception is the idea that writing crash-only software is that it allows you to take shortcuts when writing and designing your code. Wake up, Sleeping Beauty, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. But you can get a more reliable, easier to debug system if you rigorously apply the principles of crash-only design.