Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary [Import] [Hardcover]

Torvalds. Linus & David Diamond (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: HarperBusiness; 1ST edition (2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587990806
• ISBN-13: 978-1587990809
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (83 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,520,183 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, light read, February 22, 2002

By 

Douglas Welzel (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary (Hardcover)

Just For Fun isn't about to win any writing awards (boy, I really hope I don't have to eat crow for saying that), but it provides a quick, enjoyable story.

The book is a conversational look at the creation of Linux and Linus' life. It begins with the origins of Linux and plenty of dwelling on Linus' lack of a social life (too much, actually). From there, Linus chronicles the surge in the popularity of Linux and the changes it caused in his life. Nothing particularly "revolutionary" is covered, but it is an interesting story nonetheless.

Linus comes across just as you would expect, somewhat arrogant and very direct. He says exactly what is on his mind and doesn't make any excuses. Yep, Linus is the same person he has been since the beginning. :)

On the downside, the book has several chapters of commentary by David Diamond that essentially document the "making of" this book. They are probably there to add some color, but I don't think they add anything.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting reading for geeky (and not so geeky) folks, December 29, 2003

By 

Vijay K. Gurbani (Lisle, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary (Paperback)

Linus Torvalds, as most geeks and many non-geeks know, is the person behind Linux, the operating system. This book provides a soap box for Linus to talk about what has driven him (computers, programming) towards his goal. He did not intend to create a phenomenal operating system; rather, he was content adding features to his terminal emulator until the fine day that it started to grow into an operating system. In the early '90's I remember reading a posting from him on the MINIX bulletin board; the posting urged readers to download and install Linux, his new operating system based on Unix (I never quite got down to doing that, but I did follow his work including his visit to Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, where I worked during the early-mid 90's.) The book is an interesting read for me since I readily subscribe to the open/free software, extreme programming, open source movement. Reading about Linus' travails with Andrew Tannenbaum (an extremely well known Computer Science personality) and their exchange on the merits of micro-kernel vs. macro- kernel architectures is very interesting. I am not sure non-computer literate folks (non-geeks) would find this as interesting. What they will find interesting is Linus' philosophy that the world constantly moves towards entertainment with a short detour through survival and forming of societies. Case in point: industrial revolution started as a means for humans to survive in a dangerous planet, evolved into humans forming societies to channel it and has now morphed into a quest for entertainment. Computers are no different -- started off as few people depending on them for their survival (the 'anointed ones' behind glass windows), evolved into the formation of soceities (bulletin boards, newsgroups, chat rooms) and are now used for entertainment. Maybe he has something there.

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A very disappointing book, July 8, 2001

By 

"[e-mail]" (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary (Hardcover)

I really wanted to hear Linus' story, in his own words. Unfortunately, this book showed very little organization aside from chronological; there was no underlying *story* there. Just a bunch of disjointed facts presented in chronological order. The personal anecdotes, while interesting, shed very little insight about Linux. I was hoping to get some real insight into Linus the person and how he is reflected in Linux the operating system. To this end, the book failed to deliver.

However, I was interested enough in his story to slog through the awful writing in this book. Large sections of text (pages on end) are presented in italics, which make it extremely difficult to read. I don't blame Linus for this abomination of a book: that blame clearly lies with David Diamond since that was *his job*.

For folks who really want to read a good book about Linus the person and Linux the operating system, make sure that you read Rebel Code by Glyn Moody. That is a well-written book and thoroughly researched book that places Linux within the context of the open-source movement.