It’s a well-known essay. It even has a Wikipedia article.
Yeah, I bought a hard copy in a non-technical bookstore. “Six people” was a joke based on its, er, specialized audience compared to the lines of Snow Crash; in terms of absolute numbers it’s probably less obscure than, say, Zodiac.
If memory serves, Stephenson came out in favor of OSX a couple years after its release, comparing it to BeOS in the context of his essay. I can’t find the cite now, though. Speaking for myself, I find OSX’s ability to transition more-or-less seamlessly between GUI and command-line modes appealing, but its walled developer garden unspeakably annoying.
If memory serves, Stephenson came out in favor of OSX a couple years after its release
With some googling, I found this, a version of ITBWTCL annotated (by someone else) five years later, including a quote from Stephenson, saying that the essay “is now badly obsolete and probably needs a thorough revision”. The quote is quoted in many places, but the only link I turned up for it on his own website was dead (not on the Wayback Machine either).
Yeah, I bought a hard copy in a non-technical bookstore. “Six people” was a joke based on its, er, specialized audience compared to the lines of Snow Crash; in terms of absolute numbers it’s probably less obscure than, say, Zodiac.
If memory serves, Stephenson came out in favor of OSX a couple years after its release, comparing it to BeOS in the context of his essay. I can’t find the cite now, though. Speaking for myself, I find OSX’s ability to transition more-or-less seamlessly between GUI and command-line modes appealing, but its walled developer garden unspeakably annoying.
With some googling, I found this, a version of ITBWTCL annotated (by someone else) five years later, including a quote from Stephenson, saying that the essay “is now badly obsolete and probably needs a thorough revision”. The quote is quoted in many places, but the only link I turned up for it on his own website was dead (not on the Wayback Machine either).