> I strongly dislike software that will simply apply a default state when it cannot encounter a certain configuration in it's configuration file for this reason

> I strongly dislike software that will simply apply a default state when it cannot encounter a certain configuration in it's configuration file for this reason. Isn't sensible default what make certain software a lot easier to use then others? Apple seems to be good at this. Ten years ago Ubunutu brought this to the Linux world to an extent. Personally I like the configurability of Linux, but I am past the days of spending hours tweaking it and I am quite happy if someone supplies me with sensible defaults. Having said that, as a developer I agree with what you said, it's often easier if a library call gives an error than tries to do something smart / just carries on (JavaScript comes to mind), so there is a balance depending on what the user wants to do with the software.