4 ms·

Well text files work perfectly fine for unix/linux. And the installation process is infinitely less painful.

orf 8y ago
I think that's a fallacy. Just because it works somewhere (and not great, as every bit of software has its own damn arbitrary format only it can parse) doesn't mean it works here. It is conceptually a bit simpler, however that doesn't mean it is better.
- grumpydba 8y ago
  after all I've only been administering linux/unix/windows boxes for 15 years so how would I know! Installing by untaring a package, versioning the config files, adding comments... I'd rather have a bespoke format than deeply nested keys in various locations (HKCU/HKLM/HKROOT and all that mess). Having to find leftover keys, or to use pmon to find which ones are accessed is such a horrible experience.
  - orf 8y ago
    I'm not sure why you are uninstalling software so often, nor why you are so anal about cleaning the entire registry. But hey, it's a one click thing to deploy a registry change to a fleet of 10,000 AD boxes, one that can change the configuration of the 1Password app as well as MS Word, and have it done reliably. That's why it's better.
    - grumpydba 8y ago
      Because some leftover keys broke software installs maybe ? Happened to me countless times.
      - orf 8y ago
        Has never happened to me since perhaps the XP days. Why are you uninstalling software so often through AD? Not that it absolves this issue, but it's not common to have huge software churn like this. And hey, isolate the issue and push a registry change to every single machine in the network, instantly and consistently.
        grumpydba 8y ago
        You have helpdesk people doing this for your company right now, even if you don't do it personally.
jodrellblank 8y ago
They don't work perfectly fine. Random inconsistent locations, random inconsistent rules for inclusions and imports, Random ill-documented ad-hoc formats, no standard interfaces to add/remove/set config values, no ability to put ACLS on individual config entries, basically no way to export and re-import or auto-merge partial config, without at least screwing up whitespace and comments or risking duplicates, no ecosystem wide single 'source of truth' pattern. They work, but they're not nice.
- grumpydba 8y ago
  I've never seen one using acls on registry keys. I have however seen several config files for the same program with different permissions. Think .ssh/config or /etc/sshd_config. For your partial config / single source of trust please refer to ansible.

orf 8y ago

I think that's a fallacy. Just because it works somewhere (and not great, as every bit of software has its own damn arbitrary format only it can parse) doesn't mean it works here. It is conceptually a bit simpler, however that doesn't mean it is better.

grumpydba 8y ago
after all I've only been administering linux/unix/windows boxes for 15 years so how would I know! Installing by untaring a package, versioning the config files, adding comments... I'd rather have a bespoke format than deeply nested keys in various locations (HKCU/HKLM/HKROOT and all that mess). Having to find leftover keys, or to use pmon to find which ones are accessed is such a horrible experience.
- orf 8y ago
  I'm not sure why you are uninstalling software so often, nor why you are so anal about cleaning the entire registry. But hey, it's a one click thing to deploy a registry change to a fleet of 10,000 AD boxes, one that can change the configuration of the 1Password app as well as MS Word, and have it done reliably. That's why it's better.
  - grumpydba 8y ago
    Because some leftover keys broke software installs maybe ? Happened to me countless times.
    - orf 8y ago
      Has never happened to me since perhaps the XP days. Why are you uninstalling software so often through AD? Not that it absolves this issue, but it's not common to have huge software churn like this. And hey, isolate the issue and push a registry change to every single machine in the network, instantly and consistently.
      - grumpydba 8y ago
        You have helpdesk people doing this for your company right now, even if you don't do it personally.

jodrellblank 8y ago

They don't work perfectly fine. Random inconsistent locations, random inconsistent rules for inclusions and imports, Random ill-documented ad-hoc formats, no standard interfaces to add/remove/set config values, no ability to put ACLS on individual config entries, basically no way to export and re-import or auto-merge partial config, without at least screwing up whitespace and comments or risking duplicates, no ecosystem wide single 'source of truth' pattern. They work, but they're not nice.

grumpydba 8y ago
I've never seen one using acls on registry keys. I have however seen several config files for the same program with different permissions. Think .ssh/config or /etc/sshd_config. For your partial config / single source of trust please refer to ansible.