Is it safe to use DISABLE_WP_CRON ?

We’re all trying to gain a little speed here and there, why not?

Yes, it’s to disable the scheduling of future posts–and I never schedule posts. But beyond that I’m not sure what this option does.

a) It tells WP to not “spawn” a cron. Sure, but then what? Does WP simply not do the cron, or does it then try some backhanded “non-spawn” alternative that’s even less desirable?

b) If I don’t disable it, how often does it run? Last I looked at my server, seemed like it was running on almost every request. I’m sure it runs fast, but how many times a day do we really need to check for a scheduled post?

c) I found one post here that said the cron cleans up the cache. That sounds important, but should that stop me from using DISABLE_WP_CRON ?. Also, seems like each version of WP has a totally different cache system, so who knows if DISABLE_WP_CRON is necessary or not for 2.9.x?

PS: I think it’s time to retire the “Code is Poetry” thing. That was appropriate while the code was still readable. “Code is Epic” maybe? Just a suggestion ??