Lets face Ubuntu 8.04

[Michael "TheZorch" Haney]

Alan Milnes wrote:
> On Windows installing software is incredibly difficult. You need to know 
> where the package is, e.g. find the CD-Rom that was supplied with your 
> printer or hunt all over the internet to find it (hoping you don't 
> download a copy with malware by mistake). There is no centralised 
> package manager where you can point and click and dependencies are 
> managed by you not the system. Try to install a program that requires 
> .net framework 2 and if you don't have it it will just fail without 
> giving any kind of useful message.
>
> No I am sorry the idea that installing software on Windows is easy is 
> just a false rumour spread by Microsoft.
When you look at it that way you are absolutely right.  Should have 
thought of that myself.  The way you install software on Linux nowadays 
is like a breath of fresh air compared to how Windows handles things.  
Add/Remove Programs on Windows is NOTHING like Add/Remove Programs on 
Ubuntu, they are totally different.

Something else I failed to mention was how Windows and Linux deal with 
configuration settings.  Windows uses what is called the Registry.  Not 
all software write config settings to the Registry but most do.  Its a 
centralized, searchable, highly organized method of keeping track of OS 
and software settings, but this in itself is a double edged sword.  
Keeping everything in one place is dangerous since Windows is 100% 
dependent on it.  The OS will not boot at all if the Registry is 
corrupted.  Its also in binary format rather than ASCII text so you 
can't manually edit entries, and this also means the size of the 
Registry can grow rather quickly.  Third party installers and 
Microsoft's own Windows Installer doesn't remove merged Registry keys 
when software is installed so invariably over time the database becomes 
crammed with several MB of out-of-date or invalid entries.  This in turn 
makes a previously speedy install of Windows a slow and sluggish install 
of Windows.  The #1 cause of Windows slowdown and performance problems 
all link back to the Registry.  File fragmentation in the file system 
does have effect but its got be very serious before it starts to really 
degrade OS performance.  There is no easy method of backing up the 
Registry either.  Windows doesn't make backups often automatically so if 
any backups are available to restore a corrupted copy are probably 
seriously out of date.

Linux (as far as I know) take a different approach.  Every piece of 
software and the OS have separate configuration files in plain ASCII 
text (at least most do).  These can be edited manually by a text 
editor.  Unlike the binary format Windows Registry these ASCII text 
files can be very easily backed up and restored.  They don't have the 
benefit of being centralized and searchable like the Windows Registry 
but they also don't have its vulnerabilities and bloat/performance 
slowdown issues.  Also, being text based that means adding and removing 
config settings is very easy to do and fast.  Unlike Windows, if a 
config file in Linux is missing often the service or software which uses 
that file will make a new one with default settings which can then be 
overwritten with a backup file.  This isn't true with every piece of 
software but most do this.  Also, Linux reads the configuration files 
only once or only whenever a service is being restarted.  Windows often 
doesn't need a restart with most Registry setting changes since the OS 
reads the entire database multiple times during its use...thus the 
reason why Windows gets sluggish when the Registry is bloated.

This is why Linux installs don't slow down like Windows eventually does 
after a long time period of constant use.

-- 
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
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