An essay by Neal Stephenson. A very good essay dealing with the problems of Metaphor Shear, Operating Systems, Disneyland, and Morlocks vs Eloi. Has a nice little section on it comparing Linux to a power drill called the Hole Hawg.

Can be found at Cryptonomicon.com. Definitely worth a read, if only for the insights on Interface Design.

I swear I'm just digging myself deeper. Every time I fill out a nodeshell I end up creating three or four more.

"Unix has always lurked provocatively in the background of the operating system wars, like the Russian Army. Most people know it only by reputation, and its reputation, as the Dilbert cartoon suggests, is mixed. But everyone seems to agree that if it could only get its act together and stop surrendering vast tracts of rich agricultural land and hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war to the onrushing invaders, it could stomp them (and all other opposition) flat.

"It is difficult to explain how Unix has earned this respect without going into mind-smashing technical detail. Perhaps the gist of it can be explained by telling a story about drills.

"....The Hole Hawg is dangerous because it does exactly what you tell it to. It is not bound by the physical limitations that are inherent in a cheap drill, and neither is it limited by safety interlocks that might be built into a homeowner's product by a liability-conscious manufacturer. The danger lies not in the machine itself but in the user's failure to envision the full consequences of the instructions he gives to it.

"A smaller tool is dangerous too, but for a completely different reason: it tries to do what you tell it to, and fails in some way that is unpredictable and almost always undesirable. But the Hole Hawg is like the genie of the ancient fairy tales, who carries out his master's instructions literally and precisely and with unlimited power, often with disastrous, unforeseen consequences."

--Neal Stephenson, In the Beginning was the Command Line

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