Neal Stephenson Quotes

People sometimes ask me if it is a sin in the Church of Emacs to use vi. Using a free version of vi is not a sin; it is a penance. So happy hacking.

[Emacs] is written in Lisp, which is the only computer language that is beautiful.

I think one of the interesting things is that vi is really a mode-based editor.

The fundamental problem with vi is that it doesn't have a mouse and therefore you've got all these commands.

It is formatted, and I'm tired of using vi. I get really bored.

I think the wonderful thing about vi is that it has such a good market share because we gave it away.

I think Linux is a great thing, in the big picture. It's a great hacker's tool, and it has a lot of potential to become something more.

All the best people in life seem to like LINUX.

There are lots of Linux users who don't care how the kernel works but only want to use it is not only a tribute to how good Linux is, but it also brings up issues that I would never have thought of otherwise.

You can use any editor you want, but remember that vi vi vi is the text editor of the beast.

Not only is UNIX dead, it's starting to smell really bad.

We made bad use of immortality, and so ended up dying; Christ made good use of mortality, so that we might end up living.

Wands are only as powerful as the wizards who use them. Some wizards just like to boast that theirs are bigger and better than other people's.

The most powerful way to control your focus is through the use of QUESTIONS

If you are a professional writer - i.e., if someone else is getting paid to worry about how your words are formatted and printed - Emacs outshines all other editing software in approximately the same way that the noonday sun does the stars. It is not just bigger and brighter; it simply makes everything else vanish.

Might. Is there any opiate more powerful than that word?

I was Computer Shopper's linux columnist for more than half a decade, from the late 90s onwards. Yes, I know about Linux. (My first review of a Linux distro in the press was published in late 1996.)

Bill Gates really seems to be much more of a business man than a technologist, while I prefer to think of Linux in technical terms rather than as a means to money.

History is a big word... History is not the sort of animal you can domesticate.

I might live miles away from you, but I do understand you issues.

Linux has more than satisfied any small initial expectations I had. It's simply incredible how successful Linux has been, and how good a time I've had developing it and leading the project. It does take a lot of my time, but it's time I really enjoy spending, and Linux has continued to be challenging both technically and from a managing standpoint.

It feels a little bit funny coming here and telling you guys that Linux and open source are the future of gaming. It's sort of like going to Rome and teaching Catholicism to the pope.

The most powerful thing we have is our psyche. And to use our minds, we must be clear, vulnerable and open, which will take us to places we didn't even know were there or couldn't imagine ourselves going.

Every single important thing we do is something we didn't use to be good at, and in fact, might be something we used to fear.

The modern reader (or viewer, or listener: let's include everybody) is perilously overloaded. His attention is, to use the latest lingo,'targeted' by powerful forces? Our consciousness is a staging area, a field of operations for all kinds of enterprises, which make free use of it.