[Mac OSx] setting default file view?

Just wondering if any mac users know how to set the default view when opening a new finder window. By default it seems that OSx wants to open in icon view and I always need to change it to list view. I am sure that there must be a way to set a default but I cannot find this and it has been bugging me for years now (and I am finally doing something about it other than complain to myself about it).

Any clues?

This does not seem to have an obvious and simple solution.

Here’s some links:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030305025744788
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19634
http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-22567.html

Odd that there is not a tool for this (at least that I could find, there must be something). Thanks for the links, helped get an understanding.