←back to thread

In the Beginning Was the Command Line (1999)

(web.stanford.edu)
412 points conanxin | 1 comments | 27 Jul 24 06:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.21s | source
Show context
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.

replies(7): >>41084952 #>>41085934 #>>41086631 #>>41086902 #>>41088400 #>>41089882 #>>41092622 #
throwawaydummy ◴[27 Jul 24 22:48 UTC] No.41089882[source]▶
I didn’t know myself let alone computers but anyone know why Vista and Windows 8 got such bad reps?
replies(3): >>41090825 #>>41092587 #>>41093831 #
1. smackeyacky ◴[28 Jul 24 02:26 UTC] No.41090825[source]▶
They were given “tablet friendly” user interfaces that made navigation extremely difficult. But Microsoft never finished the job so you’d try to find something in the stupid sliding screen interface only to be thrown into a windows 3.1 era control panel. Windows server of that era was even worse, as mostly you administered using RDP but it never played nice with the “hover here to bring up the whole screen menu” required to drive it.

Underneath it was just Windows, but the interface ruined it