Editing In the Beginning... Was the Command Line

{{short description|Essay by Neal Stephenson}}{{Infobox book
| image             = Neal-Stephenson-in-the-beginning.jpg
| author            = [[Neal Stephenson]]
| isbn              = 978-0380815937
| pub_date          = 1999
}}

{{italic title}}

'''''In the Beginning... Was the Command Line''''' is an essay by [[Neal Stephenson]] which was originally published online in 1999 and later made available in book form (November 1999, {{ISBN|978-0380815937}}). The essay is a commentary on why the proprietary [[operating system]]s business is unlikely to remain profitable in the future because of competition from [[free software]]. It also analyzes the corporate/collective culture of the [[Microsoft]], [[Apple Computer]], and [[free software]] communities.

==Themes==
Stephenson explores the [[Graphical user interface]] (GUI) as a metaphor in terms of the increasing interposition of abstractions between humans and the actual workings of devices (in a similar manner to ''[[Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance]]'') and explains the beauty [[Hacker (hobbyist)|hacker]]s feel in good-quality tools. He does this with a [[car]] analogy. He compares four operating systems, [[Classic Mac OS|Mac OS]] by [[Apple Computer]] to a luxury European car, [[Microsoft Windows|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 OSes, but rather has simply accrued enough [[mindshare]] 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.

Stephenson relays his experience with the [[Debian bug tracking system]] ([http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=6518 #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==
[[File:Neal Stephenson 2008 crop.jpg|thumb|Stephenson in 2008]]

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:

<blockquote>... have you embraced the new UNIX based MacOS X as the OS you want to use when you "Just want to go to Disneyland"?</blockquote>

he replied:

<blockquote>
I embraced [[Mac OS X|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.<ref>{{cite web | last=Miller | first=R. | publisher=[[Slashdot]] | url=http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/20/1518217 | title=Neal Stephenson Responds With Wit and Humor | date=2004-10-20 | access-date=1 February 2010 }}</ref>
</blockquote>

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.<ref>{{cite web | last=Birkel | first=G. | title=The Command Line In 2004 | url=http://garote.bdmonkeys.net/commandline/index.html | date=2004-12-29 | access-date=1 February 2010 }}</ref> Birkel's response is interspersed throughout the original text, which remains untouched.

== See also ==
* [[History of operating systems]]
* [[Command-line interface]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/20/1518217 Slashdot: Neal Stephenson responds]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20180218045352/http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html Essay Homepage including link to download the full text]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150505004034/http://www.uiowa.edu/~c08g001d/Stephenson_Interface.pdf  The Interface Culture] from In the beginning... was the command line

{{NealStephensonBooks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:In The Beginning... Was The Command Line}}
[[Category:1999 essays]]
[[Category:Essays by Neal Stephenson]]
[[Category:Essays about computing]]
[[Category:Software development books]]
[[Category:History of human–computer interaction]]
[[Category:Books about free software]]
[[Category:Proprietary software]]
[[Category:1999 non-fiction books]]