Customer Reviews

In the Beginning...Was the Command Line

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I'm a professional programmer and an avid Linux owner. I'm always happy when someone throws a little barb at Microsoft or Apple. That having been said, I think this book generates more heat than light when it comes to the "OS War." It's somewhat weak on history, and a bit out of touch with what the average computer user wants.

A glaring omission is the early history of Stephenson's beloved Unix. To hear him tell it, Unix begins with Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds. Now, to be sure these two are giants whose shoulders we stand upon, but where is the story of Unix's actual invention at AT&T in the early 70s? The word "AT&T" appears only once in the book, briefly cited as something that Stallman was reacting against. The dark side of Unix's corporate past - the fact that Unix originally was a proprietary operating system under AT&T, and that AT&T completely missed the point of Unix and sold the license to Novell, who also blew it - would have fit right in with Stephenson's argument. Basically, for Stephenson, Unix IS Linux. There is no description whatsoever of the rich Unix tradition that precedes the founding of the Free Software Foundation, nor of the contributions that commercial Unixes like SunOS and Solaris have made, such as NFS, NIS, etc., nor of academic contributions like BSD or X. Stephenson lauds XWindows but makes it seem as if it too were a product of his open-source, hacker utopia - and not of the MIT X Consortium. These traditions were direct antecedents of today's hacker community, and Stephenson gives them short shrift.

Finally, there is Stephenson smugly chiding us on how GUIs make us into sheep led by a corporate shepherd. But he undermines his own argument by detailing (pretty factually) the time and sweat of installing and using Linux. So we are supposed to like this better than Microsoft? For the uninitiated, it sucks just as much - maybe more! If you are a programmer and a professional, Linux/Unix is the best route to go down. For the rest, people want something that turns on quickly, that doesn't wreck their stuff, and is easy to use. Windows isn't that - but neither is Linux. Stephenson is missing out on the real story: the imminent destruction of the personal computer as we know it. Someday very soon, small, highly-networked, specialized devices will replace the generalized, complicated computer. People will only pay for what they need. And what they get will be appliances, things that require neither a $95 per call help line (Microsoft) nor a descent into the depths of hacker message boards (Linux), to fix. Something like a TV set. Probably Linux or its descendant will be the operating system that these things will run on, but most people besides programmers won't need to care.

It's a fun ride, and you'll certainly finish knowing more than you did when you started. If I had to do it over, I'd buy and read this book again. But there is much more than this.

I had read and enjoyed the author's previous book, "Cryptonomicon" and was impressed with the amount of technical discussion he included (and the insight and detail he included about the Seattle and Silicon Valley tech lifestyle). I had often wondered if there was any "there" there. This book proves it. While I felt the book stopped short by only discussing the evolution of operating systems since the advent of PCs (I go back a lot farther; and there were other PC OSs that could have been mentioned), I thought he did an excellent job of capturing the recent evolution and the related technological-social debate. In fact, beyond the depiction of the technical underpinnings of the current OS wars, and beyond the knowledge of Seattle/Silicon Valley geek life-as-we-know-it (on a par with Douglas Coupland's Microserfs), the other reason I really enjoyed this book is that Mr. Stephenson managed to express in writing the very complex and convoluted feelings that I have about the whole Microsoft/anti-Microsoft debate (and have not been able to adequately express to my friends). So I have been recommending that they read the book instead.

Warning: I am a die-hard Neal Stephenson fan. If this bothers you, don't read further!

That aside, "In the Beginning Was the Command Line" should be required reading for anyone who a) regularly uses a personal computer b) has expressed an opinion on the current DOJ vs. Microsoft case. Most computer users are as unfamiliar with why they use Windows (or Macs) as they are with the history of the elevator. The elevator did not significantly change the world; GUI's & PC's have. I know half of you are already yawning, looking for another book to purchase, but wait...this is a really quick read, &, better yet, it's hysterically funny! Yes, folks, you not only get informed, are given some concepts to contemplate, you actually enjoy the process!

Stephenson admits this book is simply an essay, his musings on the 4 main operating systems currently in use (MacOS, Windows, Linux, BeOS) & how they can be viewed in the context of global culture. He gives examples from personal experience, & unlike most techno-geek/hacker types, he doesn't appear to view Bill Gates as the anti-christ (which is probably why some people hate this book). But please, don't let that scare you off. This book is an easy read for those who have never typed a single line of code in their life, while still being thought provoking for even the "Morlocks" (Stephenson's term) of the world.

Let's face it: if you're reading this, you're an Internet user. Thus, you use computers. You need the information in this book. It's only $6. BUY IT!

I'm surprised to see this "book" for sale here.. you can download it from Neal Stephenson's own website, it comes to about 80 pages if you print it out on letter sized paper.

I'm a new convert to Stephenson (I've read both Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash in the past couple of months) and find his writing brilliant. This "book".. really more like a very long essay.. is the only bit of nonfiction writing of Stephenson's that I'm familiar with. While the PC vs Mac, UNIX vs Windows discussions are interesting (I'm a PC user but I'm no techie), what really gets my blood flowing in this work is when Stephenson dares to get "philosophical" -- he's quite good at it. His take on postmodernism had me nodding in agreement and howling with laughter at the same time.

After 50 or so pages of throat-clearing, Neal Stephenson gets down to the real business: he regards the GUI (graphical user interface: think Windows/MAC desktop)as a metaphor for the failure of intellectual discipline and curiosity in our age and in the generations of children and grandchildren we will leave behind.

The very simplicity of using a GUI-based computer these days is, to Stephenson, exactly the problem. We don't know what we don't know, and we are rapidly losing our ability to learn just what it is one should learn if we are going to function as intellectual beings. Once the thread is lost, how will we regain our grip?

Sure, we're victims of time pressures and the world is overcomplicated and we can benefit from the "executive summary," but how does consuming predigested knowledge make us fit for our job of advancing man's place in the universe?

This is a heavy challenge, especially to parents who deal on a daily basis with offspring who either won't or, sadly, in some cases, CAN'T read.

Just as pocket calculators cover up arithmetical shortcomings and Velcro conceals an inability to tie one's shoes, reliance on a technological marvel such as the GUI (whether it's on a computer or a TV screen, or, in a tableau vivant, at Disney World) actually accelerates the dumbing-down of society.

That Neal Stephenson presents such a grim picture within a personal, quirky and quite humorous narrative is a terrific achievement. This is a book I am going to pass around to my friends, techies and non-techies alike.

Note to my friends: Beware, there are lessons contained in this slim volume.

Windows, Mac OS, Linux, BeOS- Neal Stephenson has used all of these operating systems, and in "In the Beginning... was the Command Line", he compiles his thoughts on each of them. The book is not a technical review or even a thorough comparison/contrast/evaluation, but more or less just tells the reader about Stephenson's experiences with each and his resulting opinion. A bit of background on the evolution of the divergent systems helps to flesh out the opinion with some insight into why each occupies the niche it does.

This is not a book for people looking for a detailed examination of the long-running "Windows v. Mac" debate, but whether you've spent your computing life on one side of the fence or the other, or like Stephenson have jumped over it a few times, it's valuable because it's an honest, well-expressed statement of a point of view. Not inspired- certainly not the way Stephenson's fiction is- but a good, solid, short read.

Let me preface this review by saying that Neal Stephenson is one of my all-time favorite authors -- I've read all of his books, even under the pseudonym Stephen Bury, all of his Wired articles, and everything I see that he's written online, and I loved every word of them. This book is about the length of one of his shorter Wired articles or a chapter from Cryptonomicon -- more on the order of a pamphlet or a "young adult" book.

The automobile sales metaphor in the first four pages that compares Windows, Linux, Be-OS and the Mac is worth reading. Stephenson's comments about the command line are not. If you really want to know why to use a command line, check out Hunt and Thomas's "The Pragmatic Programmer". As they point out, it's all about the automation, and this is essentially a professional's tool. If you really want to understand the marketing side of things and the network effect in order to understand why Microsoft has market share, read "Information Rules" by Shapiro and Varian; to understand how hard it is to port geek solutions to the masses, check out "Crossing the Chasm" by Moore. Otherwise, read some of Stephenson's fiction, which is far more enjoyable.

speaking as if he were a platonic philosopher king, seeing the truth behind the world of shadows by understanding the command line and being able to operate linux while ranting about the foibles of mainstream operating system, i should have been annoyed.

instead, i was so convinced by him that i went out and got a copy of linux, installed it on my machine feeling like i too saw through the illusion that apple and microsoft was feeding me.

until i realized that linux is very technical and i couldn't really do anything practical without investing in a great deal of time learning an arcane interface.

so i give him points for writing a compelling piece that is hard to argue with on the theoretical level.

on the practical level, he speaks from the arrogance of a guy who felt to figure out something difficult and feels compelled to spread the word because he did the impossible. linux has a lot to offer, but it isn't for everyone and there are a lot of arguments for not using it (i.e being a graphics professional and needing software that's mainstreamed and quick to use)

nonetheless, a compelling read and for a while, it was good to see through the shadows, whether or not they really exist.

I expected a lot when I sat down to read this book, and I was disappointed. However, it has virtues that make it worth reading. First, it is very short and easy to read. Second, it is relatively entertaining. Third, it gives a thoughtful and seldom voiced perspective on the future of Microsoft and the dominance of their OS. Its shortcomings are that it rambles, goes off on irrelevant tangents, has some very weak and poorly supported arguments, and assumes total technological illiteracy of the reader.

This essay posits one of the best metaphors for our society today. The use of GUI in place of the command line on our computers perfectly sums up what is wrong with us today: we want everything explained to us in simple, attractive, neat little packaged terms. And we'll PAY for it! After all, only someone who wants a pretty format would buy this book instead of getting it from Neal's own web site (where it is FREE! ). - This review refers to the online version of the text.