>>1
Because that's the UNIX way. The OS provides a weird set of primitives and you can enjoy reinventing and reimplementing the same basic functionality for your entire life. Not like you have anything better to waste it on, have you?
Wait until you get into the really wonderful parts, like demonizing processes. It's like a multidimensional jigsaw puzzle: you have to make like five or six calls each of which does its own small part, sometimes as a side effect, sometimes in order to cancel unwanted side effects of other calls.
If you don't see any fun in it, then you are not a real programmer.