[lukan]

"Because providing a 'product' is the sole criterion for success?"

Wasn't the OS made to be used by people for real and not just as a toy?

Could people use it for real? As a daily driver to get things done? (A real product)

I do not think so, so what do you think what was the point of TempleOS then?

[codetrotter]

> what was the point of TempleOS

From what I’ve seen from videos where Terry was talking about TempleOS, it seems that a large part of the point of the OS and the programs that shipped with it was as a way of “talking to god”. Where he’d run a program and it would generate some random output and he said that those were words from god. I have to assume that this was very much because of his condition. Either way, a temple to god is part of what this OS was. TempleOS.

Furthermore, TempleOS validated many of his ideas of how an OS could be built differently from how many other OSes are made.

TempleOS is like a modern day Amiga or Commodore 64 operating system.

And I could easily imagine a world in which TempleOS was distributed preinstalled on some kind of non-networked home computer that they could have in Sunday schools around the world, as a tool for bible study and as a way of learning about computers, engaging youth who are interested in technology.

[xanderlewis]

> he’d run a program and it would generate some random output and he said that those were words from god. I have to assume that this was very much because of his condition.

I actually think that seems perfectly internally consistent from the perspective of someone who seriously believes in a god. If (pseudo)random numbers and therefore the output of that program aren’t controlled by god, what is?

[jamesu]

It amazes me how much terry latched onto that idea, even binding the "god says" functionality to the F7 key in TempleOS. Sometimes I wonder how he would have reacted to ChatGPT and LLMs.

[whstl]

It's not that different from divination, lots of people latch into those ideas too.

In the end Terry just found a faster source of randomness.

Even as a non-religious person, I think that was one of the most relatable aspects of him. He really wanted to communicate.

[whstl]

> it seems that a large part of the point of the OS and the programs that shipped with it was as a way of “talking to god”

That was just a personal interest of him, and something that the rest of the internet latched into heavily.

I personally remember him preferring to talk about technical stuff whenever possible.

Unfortunately he failed to find communities that wanted to talk about his preferred flavor of tech with him. The more I type those messages the more I remember: he just wanted to chat and drive attention to his OS.

[graemep]

> And I could easily imagine a world in which TempleOS was distributed preinstalled on some kind of non-networked home computer that they could have in Sunday schools around the world, as a tool for bible study

Every religious group (Christian or otherwise) I know of uses the internet, and the web in particular, to spread and discuss their ideas. The Vatican has a website that has the catechism, encyclicals, documents of church councils etc. There is lots of material about things like the interpretation of the Bible. A Jehovah's Witness I know recently sent me links to pages on their website promoting creationism. I replied with links to biologos.org (a mainstream Christian website about evolution and science) debunking her claims.

I have also found websites about every variant of every religion I have wanted to know about. I could do with a good explanation of Sikh concepts of God though if anyone can point me to one - I am sure it exists though.

Why would a Sunday school want to cut themselves off from all this material? Within a high controlling cult maybe. Not in general.

I think a world in which TempleOS was widely used would require lots of people to share Terry's beliefs about what technology was desirable and what was not.

> a way of learning about computers, engaging youth who are interested in technology

I have not tried TempleOS but it seems to be made to be tinkered with so sounds promising for education.

[codetrotter]

> Why would a Sunday school want to cut themselves off from all this material?

They could still have their iPads and internet connected laptops and other computers.

I’m not saying they should use TempleOS and nothing else.

I’m just saying it could make for a fun additional curious thing that they could have there and which the kids could use both for bible things and for technological interest.

[graemep]

What I am saying is that it is inferior for "bible things". What could you do on it that you could not do better with something like Ubuntu Christian Edition?

> for technological interest.

As I said, I agree with that.

[AlecSchueler]

> Could people use it for real? As a daily driver to get things done?

It could be, but "getting things done" here means communicating with God, not taking zoom calls.