In the Beginning...was the Command Line by Stephenson, Neal - 1999

HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS, 1999. Paperback. Good. This is "the Word" -- one man's word, certainly -- about the art (and artif ice) of the state of our computer-centric existence. And considering that t he "one man" is Neal Stephenson, "the hacker Hemingway" (Newsweek) -- accla imed novelist, pragmatist, seer, nerd-friendly philosopher, and nationally bestselling author of groundbreaking literary works (Snow Crash, Cryptonomi con, etc., etc.) -- the word is well worth hearing. Mostly well-reasoned ex amination and partial rant, Stephenson's In the Beginning... was the Comman d Line is a thoughtful, irreverent, hilarious treatise on the cyber-culture past and present; on operating system tyrannies and downloaded popular rev olutions; on the Internet, Disney World, Big Bangs, not to mention the mean ing of life itself.