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In the Beginning was the Command Line, by Neal Stephenson
- sh1mmer 18y agoI have this essay as a book in hard copy. Now that Neal has released it, if you don't already have it you should definitely read it. It strangely continues to be true. Maybe because the concept he talks about pervade the makeup of the operating systems he discusses so much.
- mpk 18y agoOk, ok, it's a classic essay. However, it's a classic. Not news. Next thing you know there'll be a front-page article recommending "Godel, Escher, Bach", a trip through the Jargon file, a link to the Scary Devil Monastery group and, hey, did you read that thread where Linus gets into a flame-war with Tanenbaum? Also, ED is the standard editor! Yeah!
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- andreyf 18y agoI know, it's even been posted, nearly a year ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=95912 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=95912 Apologies to showing it to you twice. However, I think the benefit of showing it to those who haven't seen it outweighs the cost of seeing it twice (feel free to down-vote this to negate the karma).
- anamax 18y agoIn the beginning, there were switches and lights.... And, "Bill Gates and Paul Allen came up with an idea even stranger and more fantastical: selling computer operating systems." is false. IBM had been selling operating systems for years, thanks to one of the consent decree. (This let Amdahl and the first clone makers concentrate on building hardware and ignore software.) Moreover, Gates almost certainly knew that IBM sold operating systems. I doubt that IBM was the first to sell operating systems, and if it was, I seriously doubt that Microsoft was the second.
- gaius 18y agoInterestingly since writing that Stephenson has stated in interviews that he exclusively uses OSX these days.
- almost 18y agoFrom where you do have access to a decent command line...
- eli 18y agoIndeed, he said in 2004: I embraced OS X as soon as it was available and have never looked back. So a lot of "In the beginning was the command line" is now obsolete. I keep meaning to update it, but if I'm honest with myself, I have to say this is unlikely. http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/20/1518217 http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/20/15182...
- bitdiddle 18y agogreat classic read. It should be posted once a year, holiday time seems about right :)
- cliffw 18y agoIn the beginning was the punch card.
- jbjohns 18y agoI looked at the new Mac Pro the other day, and it seems to me that things are coming full circle. The advantage Mac gets by controlling the hardware as well as the software is really putting them ahead of Microsoft in terms of what they can do and I would expect it to continue. To be more clear, if you build for a maximum of 3 possible configurations you can make a much better experience than someone who has to deal with a virtually infinite amount. So, takes less resources to do and makes a better experience in the end. Sounds like a win-win to me.