Thread: UK Schools advised "Avoid Vista & Office '07 - Consider Linux & OpenOffice"

So the main advantage in having Linux is booting fast?

No, that's just a perk. The main advantage is stability, no registry, low footprint, synapsis manager, no obsolete files.

What does a registry actually do...?

I thought you were a technical user?

The registry is that thing where Windows stores metadata about most of it's files as well as preferences for each program. It is only accessed by the OS itself or special programs that require you to go into *whatever the Windows equivalent to a -su is* mode.

The problem is that Microsoft can't seem to figure out how to keep it clean. Whenever a file is deleted, the meta data is not removed. The longer you go without paying for a program to clean it, the slower your computer gets.

Program files are deleted on a proper uninstall, but then it leaves gaps. Next time a registry entry is made it's fragmented. There is no way to defragment the registry, it has to be done at boot time and even specialized program have to.

Linux and OSX don't have a registry, they use a Keychain, which is much smaller and easy to keep clean.

I miss tech talk.

I have lots of knowledge on different computer aspects, but seemingly random sections I'll be completely ignorant about.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by ninja9578

Linux and OSX don't have a registry, they use a Keychain, which is much smaller and easy to keep clean.

What?
most *nix apps use config files

Keychains (as far as I know) are just password management apps

I can't speak for Linux because I haven't studied how it works, but OSX's keychain does store passwords and security features, but also configuration data about certain aspects of the program. It's not as in depth as the registry on Windows, most OSX configurations for programs go into the app packages themselves.

The registry is also a single point of failure. It's a single file which, if it gets corrupted, can ruin every piece of software you've installed, as well as your OS in general.