Re: Contraversial: A New FRUGAL File System? Linux Registry (again)?

[Charles Manning <manningc2@actrix.gen.nz>]

Warren

I deal with various embedded systems, including Windows CE.

Of the few OS concepts carried over from Windows to WinCE, the registry is 
one.

I can see some merit to the concept of a registry, in theory, in that it 
makes a single configuration system in a single place. This makes 
administration and configuration a bit simpler. However, the concept of a 
single config point is very challenging when one deals with booting etc. 
Windows CE has serious pain there since you need the registry to boot, but 
where do you store the damn thing? WinCE now supports split registries to 
address this.

The Windows registry gets seriously abused too. I've seen it used for 
everything from inter-process communications to implementing error logs etc.

When it comes to newbie users, I don't think they really get any benefit from 
using a registry. How many Windows users use regedit or know there's a 
registry? Nope, they use the service's cute GUI config front-end.  Same for 
your softer Linux user - they just use the GUI sysadm tools and don't have to 
worry where the configs are.

Independently of registries, I think the concept of a frugal fs is a good one 
and likely to be of use to the embedded folk.

-- CHarles