I know how inodes work, thank you. My first UNIX was Xenix.<p>Applications do crash when they make assumptions about those files.<p>For example, when they are composed by multiple parts and give the filename for further processing via IPC, or have another instance generating a new file with the same name, instead of appending, because the old one is now gone.<p>Another easy way to corrupt files is just to access them, without making use of flock, given its cooperative nature.<p>I surely prefer the OSes that lock files properly, even if it means more work.