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Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary

Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary

List Price: $29.95
Your Price: $19.77
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Enjoyed reading it
Review: Nice reading, several good ideas.
Mr. Torvalds deserves what he got.
I just hope to use some day Fredix or Diannix OS.
Jag gör det!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Funny reading.
Review: This book is exactly what I expected it to be.
Linus don't give us a detailed explanation on why he did things this way but frankly, this is not an error for a book of this category.This book is an auto biografy, not a kernel hacker's book.
Reading this book you will feel how the Torvald's life is going on.
It's true. Reading this you will undertand Torvalds is tired about Linux.Yes. Linux is now a job, no more an hobby. Linux is responsability.With great surprise you'll discover that Torvalds has nothing against Microsoft. This book is fun. I like the Tovald's way of writing. Very informal. I read this book three times and I consider it one of the best autobiographies I ever read.Higly recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Looks Like a Penguin!
Review: This book is in fact the "bio" of Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, an operating system (OS) that has been described as an "alternative" to Windows for PC users. In it, Linus describes his early years, how he mostly loved to play with computers, spending hours and hours on an old Commodore, and then a Sinclair PC, and so forth. After saving up to buy a better PC, he describes how he tried to install Minix, a form of the Unix OS on his machine and ran into so many frustrations he decided to create his own OS, which eventually became Linux. He describes that process, as well as his "flame war" over the Internet that he encountered with Andrew Tannenbaum, the Minix creator. Another thing I noticed from this book is how Linus doesn't look at himself as any kind of "hero" or "amazing person" just because he created something so many computer folk use as their OS of choice. Essentially, Linus comes off for the most part as just another average guy, even if this "average guy" created something quite amazing and became the most famous example of "Open Source software."

Interesting story from the "Linux creator" himself, as to how Linux first came to be and what it is today, as well as about the man himself.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Light But Interesting Read
Review: Well the title was right. The book is "Just for Fun". It is a lighthearted look at Linus' short life so far. Sharing both
his Finnish heritage (and experiences in Finland) as well as well as his Silicon Valley life I found some connection to his
experiences. I laughed at his frank description of the lack of any life in San Jose. Although his childhood and adolescent
experiences in dealing with his geekiness was amusing they were just a bit much. If was a bit surprising that the author was
has written for Red Herring magazine was a little light on the technical side of things.

Two things spoke to me however. His personal observations on the Open Source Movement versus commercial software development; and his detailed account of why work has to be fun.

He talks about how work climbs the evolutionary latter from being neccasary for survival, to the need to be a part of a greater social cause and then just for plain fun. The three part evolutionary process helps to explain how dedicated hackers
help to create Linux while not directly benefiting financially.

The most interesting discussion I took from this book however was his opinions on the Open Source versus the Commercial software industry (Redmond, Washington). He gives some great examples of the US market for cell phones compared with Europe. He states that because the Europeans cooperated on an agreement on standards first this led to levels of innovation far greater than that experienced here. I also found his example of the music industry compelling. His claim is that the MP3 standard (as well as file swapping services) started in reaction to the user UN-friendly policies of the music industry of pushing one hit song CDs down the consumers throat. To get around buying a CD with only one or two songs that are worth hearing, consumers have circumvented the system by swapping only those one or two songs that are any good.

A light read with some interesting insights. If you want to read more about the Open Source Movement however there are books out there which present it in greater detail.


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