Samsara,

Being EXTREMELY well versed in all things windows (except netowrking) I was also a bit surpirsed at the way "registry" settings are handled in linux. The way each program has it's own text files that are editable and usualy well commented. I found the switch to be quite daunting, because everything is windows is hands off, and keep out.

But believe me, even though I am still VERY green when it comes to linux, I have found that I LOVE having those text files instead of the binary registry. It allows you so much more controll. Plus, when a program is well commented as most of them are, it is realy a LOT easier. Having tht kind of commenting ina single global settings file like the windows registry would be a nightmare because eash program would need to make relatively huge changes to the file. Where in windows, the variables and values are set with no real explanation as to what most of it does.

Also, if you make the wrong change and windows won't boot, you are SOL. In linux, you can almost always boot into a prompt and cd to the directory the messed up file is in and use VI or whatever editer you want to fix it.