On 10/8/2011 7:32, Jim Henderson wrote:
> Just like on Windows it used to depend on whether the developer wrote an
> INI file or used the registry.

More precisely, it's a question of whether the developer wrote his own code 
to frob INI files, or whether he used the Windows API to do so. Because when 
the registry came out, the Windows API was later changed to stor INI files 
in the registry.

>> [Let's not even get into the fact that the registry is transactional,
>> while text files aren't. Or that it supports storing binary blobs
>> relatively efficiently...]
>
> Transactionality is a function of the filesystem, and I use a journaled
> filesystem.

The Linux file system isn't transactional. It's just journaled. There's no 
way to update three files at once and ensure nobody sees only one of them 
updated. There's no way to save six files full of Apache config and ensure 
the backup program running in the background hasn't backed up three of the 
new ones and three of the old ones.

> And I've yet to see anything more effective than a binary blob as a
> file.

I'm curious what this sentence is supposed to mean. Binary blobs are the 
lowest common denominator, but almost no files actually store a binary blob.

> Sometimes distros choose that route because it's just easier than
> educating the user.  I would prefer if they educated the user instead.

Or because it's more reliable.  If you update half an installation without 
actually restarting the programs using the DLLs and config files you just 
updated, you could be pretty screwed down the line.  Happened all the time 
to me when (for example) the sys admin would update a running server but not 
save the configuration to outlast a reboot, and then the machine would get 
rebooted and all the software depending on that new configuration would fail.

> Doing the same on my openSUSE boxes, it's one reboot.  Period.  *If*
> there's a kernel update.

Out of curiosity, why would you care how many boots it takes to install the 
OS? It's not like there's other things running while you're trying to 
install, right?

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   How come I never get only one kudo?

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