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that’s not cool. Tricking computer users who may not be familiar with this command and which could cause data loss with real world repercussions (lost company data, lost treasured family photos etc) is not cool or funny.

For those unfamiliar with this command, it may completely remove all files from your system, resulting in a broken and unrecoverable system.

With the tilde, it’ll actually “just” remove all your files, which will probably leave your system perfectly usable without any of your stuff.

Sigh. The correct way is to

1) Disable System Integrity Protection

2) Delete Time Machine and associated files

3) Run sudo rm -rf /

Now your Apple mail will be optimized and it will run faster.

It's definitely funny. Save the paternalism for your kids

Don't run random shell commands you find in the comment section folks.

I know a handful of non-tech users that have been fooled by this over the years. Destructive pranks are not funny, and you don't know what valuable data you're putting at risk.

There are plenty of amusing pranks that don't result in random data loss.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com