In the Beginning... Was the Command Line
In the Beginning... Was the Command Line is an essay by
Apple Computer, and free software
communities.
Themes
Stephenson explores the
Disney
, in that both are selling a vision to their customers, who in turn "want to believe" in that vision.
Stephenson relays his experience with the
Debian bug tracking system (#6518
). He then contrasts it with Microsoft's approach. Debian developers responded from around the world within a day. He was completely frustrated with his initial attempt to achieve the same response from Microsoft, but he concedes that his subsequent experience was satisfactory. The difference he notes is that Debian developers are personally accessible and transparently own up to defects in their OS distribution, while Microsoft pretends errors don't exist.
Later developments
The essay was written before the advent of
Mac OS X. A recurring theme is the full power of the command line compared with easier-to-learn graphical user interfaces (GUIs) which are described as broken mixed metaphors for 'power users'. He then mentions GUIs that have traditional terminals in windows. In a Slashdot
interview in 2004, in response to the question:
... have you embraced the new UNIX based MacOS X as the OS you want to use when you "Just want to go to Disneyland"?
he replied:
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.[1]
With Neal Stephenson's permission, Garrett Birkel responded to In the Beginning...was the Command Line in 2004, bringing it up to date and critically discussing Stephenson's argument.[2] Birkel's response is interspersed throughout the original text, which remains untouched.
See also
References
- ^ Miller, R. (2004-10-20). "Neal Stephenson Responds With Wit and Humor". Slashdot. Retrieved 1 February 2010.
- ^ Birkel, G. (2004-12-29). "The Command Line In 2004". Retrieved 1 February 2010.
External links
- Slashdot: Neal Stephenson responds
- Essay Homepage including link to download the full text
- The Interface Culture from In the beginning... was the command line