3 ms·
Time for me to re-read "In the Beginning ...". Here's one quote that stands out: > The BeOS needs a megalomaniacal egomaniac sitting on its throne to give it a
by eesmith 5y ago
Time for me to re-read "In the Beginning ...". Here's one quote that stands out:
> The BeOS needs a megalomaniacal egomaniac sitting on its throne to give it a human character which everyone loves to hate. Without this, the BeOS will languish in the impersonifiable realm of OSs that people can never quite get a handle on. You can judge the success of an OS not by the quality of its features, but by how infamous and disliked the leaders behind them are.
Also, here's BeOS in Stephenson's Cryptonomicon:
> Randy types "Finux" and hits the return key. "How many operating systems you have on this thing?"
> "Windows 95, for games and when I need to let some lamer borrow my computer temporarily," Avi says. "Windows NT for office type stuff. BeOS for hacking, and screwing around with media. Finux for industrial-strength typesetting."
> "Which one do you want now?"
> "BeOS. Going to display some JPEGs. I assume there’s an overhead projector in this place?"
- CRConrad 5y ago> > "BeOS. Going to display some JPEGs. I assume there’s an overhead projector in this place?" I vaguely recall wondering whether Stephenson was drunk when he wrote that, back when I first read it. Like... As if Windows, both 95 and NT, or "Finux" (can't recall whatever that was; a specific distro, or his codename for Linux in general?) couldn't display JPEG?!? Utterly fricking weird.