In the Beginning...was the Command Line is a lengthy essay by Neal Stephenson which was originally published online in 1999 and later made available in book form. The essay is a commentary on why the proprietary operating systems business is unlikely to remain profitable in the future because of competition from free software. It also lucidly analyzes the corporate/collective culture of the Microsoft, Macintosh, and free software communities. Stephenson explores the GUI as a metaphor in terms of the increasing interposition of metaphors between humans and the actual workings of devices (in a similar manner to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) and explains the beauty hackers feel in good-quality tools. He does this with a car analogy. He compares four operating systems, Mac OS by Apple Computer to a fine European luxury car, Windows by Microsoft to a station wagon, Linux to a free tank, and BeOS to a batmobile. Stephenson argues that people continue to buy the station wagon despite free tanks being given away, because people do not want to learn how to operate a tank; they know that the station wagon dealership has a machine shop that they can take their car to when it breaks down. Because of this attitude, Stephenson argues that Microsoft is not really a monopoly, as evidenced by the free availability of other choice OS's, but rather has simply accrued enough mental shares among the people to have them coming back. He compares Microsoft to Disney, in that both are selling a vision to their customers, who in turn "want to believe" in that vision. Image File history File links This image is a book cover. ... Image File history File links This image is a book cover. ... Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer, known primarily for his science fiction works in the postcyberpunk genre with a penchant for explorations of society, mathematics, currency, and the history of science. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... An operating system (OS) is a computer program that manages the hardware and software resources of a computer. ... This article is about free software as defined by the sociopolitical free software movement; for information on software distributed without charge, see freeware. ... This article is about free software as defined by the sociopolitical free software movement; for information on software distributed without charge, see freeware. ... GUI can refer to the following: GUI is short for graphical user interface, a term used to describe a type of interface in computing. ... Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values is the first of Robert M. Pirsigs texts in which he explores a Metaphysics of quality. ... This rendering of a likeness of grey hat hacker Adrian Lamo highlights the mystique surrounding hackers in the context of issues of right and wrong in the digital age. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Apple Inc. ... Microsoft Windows is the name of several families of proprietary software operating systems by Microsoft. ... Microsoft is one of few companies engaging itself in the console wars Where they are up against sony, nintendo, and of course sharps new console which may cause a threat. ... Linux (IPA pronunciation: ) is a Unix-like computer operating system family that uses the Linux kernel. ... BeOS is an operating system for personal computers which began development by Be Inc. ... The Batmobile is the fictional personal automobile of comic book superhero Batman. ...

Stephenson spends some time discussing Debian and its impressive bug-tracking system in the essay. Debian developers were extremely pleased to find out that an author whom many of them respect uses and approves of their work. He also gives Microsoft's view on bug tracking. Initially it is impossible to find any mention of specific bugs on Microsoft's website, but later he notices that Microsoft has enstated a system similar to the Debian one, though sugar-coated so as to not ruin the vision demanded by its customers. Debian is a project based around the development of a free, complete operating system based on the work of the GNU Project through the collaboration of volunteers from around the world. ...

The essay was written before the advent of Mac OS X. In a Slashdot interview on 2004-10-20, he remarked: Mac OS X (official IPA pronunciation: ) is a line of proprietary, graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ... Slashdot, often abbreviated as /., is a technology-related news website which features user-submitted and editor-evaluated current affairs news with a nerdy slant. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... October 20 is the 293rd day of the year (294th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 72 days remaining. ...

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] Mac OS X (official IPA pronunciation: ) is a line of proprietary, graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ...

With Neal Stephenson's permission, Garrett Birkel wrote an essay in 2004 interspersing his own notes and comments throughout In the Beginning...was the Command Line to bring it more or less up-to-date as of the end of 2004; the original text remains untouched.

Factual error

In Stephenson's description of the Macintosh Programmer's Workshop development environment, he wrote: MPW version 3. ...

During the late 1980's and early 1990's I spent a lot of time programming Macintoshes, and eventually decided for fork over several hundred dollars for an Apple product called the Macintosh Programmer's Workshop, or MPW. MPW had competitors, but it was unquestionably the premier software development system for the Mac. It was what Apple's own engineers used to write Macintosh code. Given that MacOS was far more technologically advanced, at the time, than its competition, and that Linux did not even exist yet, and given that this was the actual program used by Apple's world-class team of creative engineers, I had high expectations
…[after running MPW]…
In other words, the first thing that Apple's hackers had done when they'd got the MacOS up and running—probably even before they'd gotten it up and running—was to re-create the Unix interface, so that they would be able to get some useful work done. At the time, I simply couldn't get my mind around this, but: as far as Apple's hackers were concerned, the Mac's vaunted Graphical User Interface was an impediment, something to be circumvented before the little toaster even came out onto the market. Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®) is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ...

MPW did not exist at the time the original Macintosh was released in 1984—the first version of MPW did not come out until 2 years later, long after the Mac OS was already "up and running"—so the only way to write programs for the original Macintosh was to cross-compile them from a Macintosh XL, although Stephenson is correct that MPW's primary interface was CLI-style. Compiling a program takes place by running a compiler on the build platform. ... Macintosh XL The Macintosh XL was a modified version of the Apple Lisa personal computer made by Apple Computer. ...

See also

• History of operating systems
• Command line interface

The history of computer operating systems recapitulates to a degree, the recent history of computing. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Command prompt. ...

External links

• Slashdot: Neal Stephenson responds
• Essay Homepage including link to download the full text
• Another online text