> I don't see how it causes problems for humans.  If you want to modify
> the startup of foo, you edit /etc/init.d/foo.  That seems easier to me
> than editing one massive file.

It's practically impossible to approach a strange machine and figure
out what it does on startup.   The scripts in /etc/init.d, because
they are independent, have to do quite a bit more than would be done
in /etc/rc.local.   So each script winds up being about the size of
/etc/netstart on NetBSD.

Then, you can't edit the whole startup process at once - you have to
grep around for the daemon you're trying to control, then edit the
file that controls it, and usually figure out the entire functioning
of that file and then touch yet another file somewhere else to make
the change you want.  The learning curve is obscene.

			       _MelloN_