Rating: 
Summary: Humorous and Well Written but very Introductory
Review: This is a great book. I love Neal's other work like Snow Crash and Cryptonomicom, and I still enjoy those works better, but I think this is a really good look into the whole OS war. Some of his analogies I had never heard before and they come off with that same wit and tongue in cheek humor that is so prevalent in his fiction. Moreover his examination of the customer's motivation "They Want To Believe" as he says is something that I had never really considered before. My only complaint is that this book is extremely introductory. There are parts which I think may be over generalized, and I'm not sure if he really doesn't know about these areas or is simply writing down to his audience. However at 150 pages it's not much of an investment, and I think it's worth it just for his clever writing style.
Rating:
Summary: An opinion about OPERATING systems and how they're marketed
Review: I, too, picked up this book because of the author alone. I've read his stuff in Wired and (of course) his SF books. I'm still trying to figure which one I like the best. However, I'd say that his non-SF seems to be right on. Please understand, he isn't advocating one OS over another or GUI over command line but is describing how we got here in the first place and is giving YOU the ammo to decide what you want to use on YOUR machine. It's a good read and only about 150 pages. I'm a MCSE and a software development project manager but I'm going to download Linux, BeOS, and (now that it's free) Solaris and understand the competition. This is a good net culture book and a GREAT net business book. Read it, you'll understand what I mean.
Rating: 
Summary: Nutritious food for thought - your agreement is irrelevant
Review: An outstanding overview of the history of the life-cycles of PC operating systems and hardware; with interesting thoughts about where we should choose (that right, we can choose ! ) to evolve to next (So where do you want to go today ! ) You may not agree with him, but so what ? The arguments are well presented and well worth considering. HOWEVER ! Please note that this is an essay, not a book.
Rating: 
Summary: Stephenson undermines his own arguments.
Review: Neal Stephenson, please get off your soapbox. You come off so pompous its forced me to rethink some of my views towards your novels. A computer is merely a tool. It's not some ideogram representing mankind's approach to learning, towards communication with the cosmos or any other such nonsense. Tools are designed to be easy to use, or else what's the point? Describing free operating systems as the greatest thing since sliced bread and then going on to detail how difficult they are to learn and use seems somewhat self defeating. Information should be free you say? Why, because it isn't tangible? Oh please, Mr. Stephenson. Next you'll exhort us to return to the days of barter, for after all, money is merely a symbolic representation of exchanges of goods and services and removes us all from reality. And god forbid we use ATM cards to pay for things, for this would further remove the exchange of money for goods and services to the level of mere abstraction. Mr. Stephenson, please rethink your vehemence towards the graphical user interface. GUIs are everywhere. I would argue that our very brains exist to apply GUIs over "reality" and allow us to interpret it. Graphical User Interfaces in ALL aspects of our lives, including computers, have elevated us, Mr. Stephenson. When you rail against progress like a Luddite as you do here, you come off as a member of a very bitter clique.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I can live with my disagreement with this essay's premise, but I just can't respect the way Stephenson makes his argument. The analogies are flawed, the tone is bombastic, and the writing is careless. A major disappointment after the brilliance of Cryponomicon. Stephenson should stick to fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Worth paying for, even if it's free elsewhere.
Review: Oh, to be Neal Stephenson, and have to clout to get a publisher to publish a nonfiction volume containing an essay that's already available on the Web for free. And, oh, to be Neal Stephenson and write an essay that's still worth paying for. Some of his points have been made elsewhere in different contexts ("The Appearance of Impropriety: How the Ethics Wars Have Undermined American Government, Business and Society" makes similar points about the growing role of appearance in American society) but Stephenson makes them so well, and ties things together so cleanly, that even when they're not new they sound that way. Like this one: "During this century, intellectualism failed, and everyone knows it. In places like Russia and Germany, the common people agreed to loosen their grip on traditional folkways, mores, and religion, and let the intellectuals run with the ball, and they screwed everything up and turned the century into an abattoir. Those wordy intellectuals used to be merely tedious; now they seem kind of dangerous as well. "We Americans are the only ones who didn't get creamed at some point during all of this. We are free and prosperous because we have inherited political and value systems fabricated by a particular set of eighteenth century intellectuals who happened to get it right. But we have lost touch with those intellectuals...." (p. 53). Free or for money, read it!
Rating:
Summary: Beneath the metaphor is . . . another metaphor
Review: After 50 or so pages of throat-clearing, Neal Stephenson gets down to the real business: he regards the GUI (graphical user interface: think Windows/MAC desktop)as a metaphor for the failure of intellectual discipline and curiosity in our age and in the generations of children and grandchildren we will leave behind. The very simplicity of using a GUI-based computer these days is, to Stephenson, exactly the problem. We don't know what we don't know, and we are rapidly losing our ability to learn just what it is one should learn if we are going to function as intellectual beings. Once the thread is lost, how will we regain our grip? Sure, we're victims of time pressures and the world is overcomplicated and we can benefit from the "executive summary," but how does consuming predigested knowledge make us fit for our job of advancing man's place in the universe? This is a heavy challenge, especially to parents who deal on a daily basis with offspring who either won't or, sadly, in some cases, CAN'T read. Just as pocket calculators cover up arithmetical shortcomings and Velcro conceals an inability to tie one's shoes, reliance on a technological marvel such as the GUI (whether it's on a computer or a TV screen, or, in a tableau vivant, at Disney World) actually accelerates the dumbing-down of society. That Neal Stephenson presents such a grim picture within a personal, quirky and quite humorous narrative is a terrific achievement. This is a book I am going to pass around to my friends, techies and non-techies alike. Note to my friends: Beware, there are lessons contained in this slim volume.
Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable and possibly thought provoking read.
Review: I enjoyed the book. Oh, I'm not saying you'll agree with the author. He's wrong ... or to put it another way, he takes the risk of expressing an opinion so he's going to be wrong one way or another, sooner or later, to someone. If you're the type of person who stops as soon as someone expresses an opinion you disagree with or which is 'stupid', this book is probably not for you (unless you agree with the author's opinions :) But if you like to reflect on WHY you think he's wrong, on where in his thoughts you think he is wrong or right ... you'll probably enjoy it. I know I certainly enjoyed the views on Linux vs Windows. I'm still wondering whether or not it really might be the destiny of an operating system to be free. (Guess we'll find out ...)
Rating:
Summary: An excellent read, but it's presently free online.
Review: I loved this essay when I first read it on Stephenson's Cryptonomicon website; unfortunately, I didn't realize that it was the exact same word-for-word essay that I have stored on my computer's hard drive when I added the item to my Amazon.com Wishlist. Now I have a hard copy of the essay as well. Don't get me wrong -- I love this essay; it definitely sums everything up nicely in a brief, easy-to-grasp manner, but I'm still rather annoyed that somebody paid money for text I'd already read for free. Perhaps it's not so much that money was paid for it, but that I feel misled, since no one ever pointed out that it's the exact same essay. I definitely adore Stephenson's work, and I suppose anything that gets him a few pennies for something I've enjoyed is a good thing. But still.
Rating:
Summary: Technology for technologies sake?
Review: In this book, Stephenson endeavors to delineate between the major operating systems and the reasons for the schism between users of these. He furthers his explanations with an analogy of how an OS functions as a "metaphor" for its users, hiding them from the painstaking process of learning its low- level functions and inner workings. I love Stephenson's work and enjoyed this book. His captivating form of writing and expression make this easy. I wage "jihad"; Mac vs. PC, daily on my alma-matter's electronic bulletin board and found much of the book to be quite perceptive in that whole discussion. The only reservation I have about the book is that it leans at times towards a tone of technology for technologies sake. One does not have to learn how to drive a tank if all one needs is transport to their mother's house a couple of nights each week. An OS is simply a platform upon which we place our tools. This is all important in the examination of any OS. As a Window's developer using Microsoft tools my concern is less with a heirarchical viewpoint of users (Morlock vs. Eloi) and more with how I can get my job done in the quickest, easiest and most effecient way.
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