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In the Beginning Was the Command Line (1999)

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412 points conanxin | 2 comments | 27 Jul 24 06:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.413s | source
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mxwsn ◴[27 Jul 24 07:02 UTC] No.41084928[source]▶
This essay by Neal Stephenson was first published in 1999. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Beginning..._Was_the_...

The analogy of OS as cars (Windows is a station wagon, Linux is a tank) is brought up in the recent Acquired episode on Microsoft, where Vista was a Dodge Viper but Windows 7 was a Toyota Camry, which is what users actually wanted.

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1. davidgerard ◴[27 Jul 24 14:39 UTC] No.41086902[source]▶
The actual comparison is that Vista was the Ford Edsel (hilarious and widely-mocked failure) but 7 was the Ford Comet (a huge hit).

It's a close analogy, because the Comet was actually the next model of Edsel. They just changed the branding. Same with Vista to 7.

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2. ◴[27 Jul 24 23:20 UTC] No.41090072[source]▶