OK. I have to hand it to the KDE developers

Kier

Yes. It comes with all those K* apps.

I like that keyword search-result-config method because it behaves similarly to many of the database reporting applications I build for clients. Choose items to search on, see the Results, click to load more details or drill-down another level. And it's quick. Windows has many good system tools in the Control Panel and in other places, but each opens in a separate window or dialog you then have to close - it's just easier to navigate and use from a central paned interface, the way KDE did it.

I'll look into how they're built. I have a feeling they're just simple text files.

This is an area where Windows shines, with the many hyperlinks and 'see also' entries, as well as better formatting. The best desktop software documentation I ever saw came with Borland Paradox for Windows, way back in '93. When you bought the program - for something like $139 - you got four or five books, several of them huge, like 800 pages. Each method-event-property-etc had a good description and detailed implementation example. Very nice stuff.

I do think that single interface is the best way to do desktop system config. I'm sure MS could implement a similar system for many of the Control Panel items - but I doubt we'll ever see it. I've been asking them for 3 years for a new MS Access feature (separate SQL and results windows), no such luck.

You can't always get what you want.