Stephenson, Neal ( 1999). 'In The Beginning Was The Command Line' : Neal Stephenson : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
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Stephenson, Neal (1999). 'In the Beginning was the Command Line'.
  • jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
    2·
    9 days ago

    I just finished this, yes it took me a month.

    I found his literary style, very compelling, it was a fun read.

    I found his predictions while interesting, not very clairvoyant. BeOS is sadly no longer with us.

    I did like his tie-in to the Church of the simulation at the end, though this predates the official organization of such an church.

    I think it was a thought-provoking essay, I disagreed with some aspects of this predictions, especially around what a monopoly is. It’s thought-provoking. It’s a good read. It is not gospel

    He did talk about hacker culture, and anybody being able to fix anything, but was not able to make the connection between BeOS and proprietary license and Linux with an open license. The death of BOS followed one year from the creation of this essay

    • Quintus@lemmy.mlOP
      2·
      9 days ago

      I agree with all you’ve said. Especially the monopoly part is where I disagreed the most. This is a good document to inform people about the ideology behind computers. Well, would be if not for those mistakes you have mentioned.

      Other than those, as you have said, it’s a thought-provoking essay.

  • radamant@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 month ago

    Written in 1999

    Never forget that in 2001 he switched to Mac OS X and has been using it since.

    • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      1·
      1 month ago

      That’s when Unix (Mach kernel and FreeBSD) based OSX launched. It included command line and OOP development tools that really were a huge improvement over the previous OS 7-9.

      I bought my first Mac a few years later 2003 because I needed a reliable laptop, there was no competition (anyone remember the Sony Viao?) in good laptops, unless you liked thinkpads with one nipple. Plus as a design student, I needed macromedia and Adobe products, and worked in my college’s computer lab managing Mac’s anyway.

  • jabjoe@feddit.ukEnglish
    1·
    1 month ago

    It’s a good read, but he then back on it all and went all Apple. So it’s a bit bitter sweat. Snow Crash is probably better.

    • pbjamm@beehaw.orgEnglish
      1·
      1 month ago

      I knew quite a few linux fans who went with Apple laptops when OSX came out. At the time it was the best thing available that had unix under the hood which made it really powerful in the right hands.

      • jabjoe@feddit.ukEnglish
        1·
        1 month ago

        If they were more about UNIX than freedom, that could make sense back then. These days, you miss out on loads on of open stuff and are very much a third class citizen. After Linux and Windows, as the platform has neither freedom or a large user base. Macports seams to regularly have talks about how they are shunned and ignored.

    • azimir@lemmy.ml
      1·
      1 month ago

      I’m a Cryptonomicon person. The modern timeline is dated now, but the overall information warfare themes are delicious.

        • azimir@lemmy.ml
          1·
          30 days ago

          I have it on the shelf, but haven’t gotten to it. I’ll put it in the reading queue.

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    1·
    1 month ago

    Lamina1 is enough to prove Stephenson is kind of full of shit.

    It’s such a joke it doesn’t even have its own Wikipedia entry. It’s just a footnote on Stephenson’s.

    I’m just gonna call it like I sees it:

    I put Stephenson in the same camp as Orson Scott Card.

    He had a single book with some really brilliant and thoughtful ideas… and that’s about it. People need money to stay alive, and can always be swayed by it.