A great new piece by Anil Dash ( @anildash) on the *shitshow* (my words) that is OpenAI's Atlas, and the dangers of anti-web technology in general:
https://www.anildash.com//2025/10/22/atlas-anti-web-browser/
I disagree with him, however, and fundamentally, about CLIs, but that is the *only* part of his piece I feel he gets wrong. I think he either doesn't like them (ie. a subjective taste thing) or simply doesn't understand their capabilities and culture enough. That is not uncommon, and its perfectly ok. He's a brilliant thinker and writer and we're lucky to have him crafting and sharing his essays with us so often!
On a related note, I've been privately sketching out some pieces about the power and pleasure and idealism of CLIs for several years, mostly as private WIPs. Seeing Mr. Dash get CLIs so wrong (cue the obligatory XKCD about seeing someone being wrong on the Internet -- the worst sin to a hyper-geek) has pushed me over the edge into deciding I should polish something up and share it too. About Terminals, CLIs, shells, REPLs, APIs and TUIs in general. I've been using them daily -- and building things out of them, and shipping -- for several decades. Ditto on GUIs. So... I have *thoughts* on it. 馃槃 Backed by loads of observation and hands-on experiences.
