I was expecting more discussion on this issues, since I believe they
are the strongest to slow down Linux ecosystem evolution and user
friendlyness.
This one:
But IMHO, I can't
handle such a big mess of different configuration files and locations
anymore. And I can't handle to explain that to customers and business
software developers. They see Linux as a very confusing system.
Obviously, switching from plain text to a key namespace is not enough.
It must be adopted by higher level software, OS base configurations,
distros, an ecosystem. Then we'll stop having different flavors of
Linux, and something way more usable.
And this:
Out there in the business world, developers (specially those who
came
from a Windows environment) are thirsty for some registry-like
configuration store. Its easy to handle configurations (nobody wants
to write configuration file compilers). Its better to design software
that provides a plugin architecture (extensions integrate themselves
changing a few keys, instead of having to understand and regenerate
the whole configuration file). Current Linux (distro-specific) ad-hoc
for this is the configuration dir, where you drop your configuration
piece.
And this:
I believe it is the distribution role to feel this market need and
include developer tools like Elektra. I'm not saying to patch
everything to a key database right now, but to just include it and let
the ecosystem (specially of commercial apps) grow. It doesn't have to
be Elektra, but for obvious reasons I believe it is the most
system-wide, simple, and close to what they already know (WRegistry).
BTW, Elektra API is also being ported to Windows, so a cross-platform
app will have the same source code to access configurations (namespace
is cross-plat too), and on Windows the API will fetch keys in the
Windows Registry. More about this architecture in this presentation (I
just uploaded an update):
http://elektra.sourceforge.net/elektra.sxi or
http://elektra.sourceforge.net/presentation/elektra.html
Regards,
Avi