>> Unix software, on the other hand, seems to regard giant text files 
>> (all with a completely different format) as the *primary* means of 
>> configuration, and a GUI as secondary to that.
> 
> That's because Unix doesn't have a registry. Hence, every program 
> implements its own configurations subsystem.

The registry is actually one of the few nice ideas in Windows, IMHO.

>> Windows software tends to regard the GUI as the primary way to 
>> configure. And if there isn't a button for it, it's probably just not 
>> editable at all.
> 
> Not quite true. It's just not supported if there's no button. There's 
> all kinds of things you can tweak but only if you know what you're doing.

IME, most of the stuff you have to manually tweak the registry for is 
compatibility settings or obscure configuration that only a system 
administrator for a large company would care about. There aren't too 
many email programs that have an option to automatically spellcheck 
before sending, but you can _only_ turn this on through the registry. 
For example.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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