"In The Beginning Was The Command Line" An essay by Neal Stephenson that talks about proprietary operating systems and FOSS operating systems. Written in 1999.
Lamina1 is enough to prove Stephenson is kind of full of shit.
It's such a joke it doesn't even have its own Wikipedia entry. It's just a footnote on Stephenson's.
I'm just gonna call it like I sees it:
I put Stephenson in the same camp as Orson Scott Card.
He had a single book with some really brilliant and thoughtful ideas... and that's about it. People need money to stay alive, and can always be swayed by it.
Them again, "a single book with some really brilliant and thoughtful ideas" is one book more than most authors, much less internet commenters will ever put out.