The main reason I hate the registry and much prefer /etc is that I can do `tar -czf backup.tar.gz /etc/*` and have a backup. I can also fix my machine if things are so bad I have to boot into single user mode. Scripts can easily look at system settings. On the plus side, the registry is more consistent; you don't have to figure out each program's config language.

I think you can export pieces of the registry, and if Windows had better command line tools, scripts could easily look at settings. But as it is now, it's a lot easier to backup and restore /etc than the registry.