Stands up well to the test of time thus far... | In the Beginning...was the Command Line

The Reason Why I Learned to Love Linux | In the Beginning...was the Command Line | Neal Stephenson

books:


	• In the Beginning...was the Command Line Neal Stephenson Harper Perennial, 1999 - 160 pages average customer review:based on 100 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

geeks and nerds: break free from your gui cage

A good way to think of this book: a treatise for kids that grew up in the GUI and getting them to understand the importance of proper syntax. On the shell. Because that's where the hotness is at.

Stands up well to the test of time thus far...

You would think that a book focused on operating systems--even one with a focus on the sociological and philosophical implications of the rapid evolution of interface technologies--which was written in 1999 would be rather dated by now.

But this is a book written by Seattle author and revered science fiction prophet, Neal Stephenson (author of Cryptonomicon).

The book is called In the Beginning...Was the Command Line. I recommend it. To geeks and non alike. Stephenson is a man who's easy to read and good with metaphors for those of us/you who are not ubernerds.

A passage that I particularly like:

"Contemporary culture is a two-tiered system, like the Morlocks and the Eloi in H.G. Wells's The Time Machine, except that it's been turned upside down. In The Time machine, the Eloi were an effete upper class, supported by lots of subterranean Morlocks who kept the technological wheels turning. But in our world it's the other way round. the Morlocks are in the minority, and they are running the show, because they understand how everything works. The much more numerous Eloi learn everything they know from being steeped from birth in electronic media directed and controlled by book-reading Morlocks. that many ignorant people would be dangerous if they got pointed in the wrong direction, and so we've evolved a popular culture that is (a) almost unbelievably infectious, and (b) neuters every person who infected by it, by rendering them unwilling to make judgments and incapable of taking stands. Morlocks, who have the energy and intelligence to comprehend details, go out and master complex subjects and produce Disney-like Sensorial Interfaces so that Eloi can get the gist without having to strain their minds or endure boredom."

Good comparison, but as he says, lest you think he's just an "intellectual throwing a tantrum," he points out that "The situation I describe here could be bad, but doesn't have to be bad and isn't necessarily bad now."

Reading the comments on amazon, you'll see the usual--some glowing "must have!" reviews, and some snobby "not technical enough" reviews. This isn't a long book, but it's a good non-fiction read. Especially for those of you who have SOME background and interest in developing technology and what it could be doing to us en masse.

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The Reason Why I Learned to Love Linux

This book introduced me to the open source movement. Refreshing view of the programmer as "creator" in the domain of binary world. Interesting parallels to religion. This book captures the heart and soul of the information age.

This is "the Word" -- one man's word, certainly -- about the art (and artifice) of the state of our computer-centric existence. And considering that the "one man" is Neal Stephenson, "the hacker Hemingway" (Newsweek) -- acclaimed novelist, pragmatist, seer, nerd-friendly philosopher, and nationally bestselling author of groundbreaking literary works (Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, etc., etc.) -- the word is well worth hearing. Mostly well-reasoned examination and partial rant, Stephenson's In the Beginning... was the Command Line is a thoughtful, irreverent, hilarious treatise on the cyber-culture past and present; on operating system tyrannies and downloaded popular revolutions; on the Internet, Disney World, Big Bangs, not to mention the meaning of life itself.

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