Customer Reviews

Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

This book is great if your have some knowledge of Linux and the open source community. The best part is towards the end when you get Linus's moderate opinions of a variety of topics. I just started using Linux in the past few years and I always thought that Linus shared the same views as Richard Stallman. This is not the case at all, it turns out Linus has really practical views when it comes to open source software and IP in general. The first 1/2 of the book is a brief history of Linux. This book is a really quick read. It turned out to be much more entertaining than I originally thought it would be.

I thought this book was both a good biography and a good look at the "open source movement". How can you not like the story of Linus Torvalds who is not trying to do anything great or get rich or achieve fame. He just wanted some better software. His curiousity about low level programming and desire to build something better led him to create Linux. His desire to have others help him build better software led him to give it away free. But he is no rigid idealist either. He enjoys the money that he will make later and buys a nice house and toys (e.g., BMW Z3). His guiding principle is just to have fun. How can you not like the guy?

Also the book gives a good look at the "open source movement". It provides some insight into how and why "hackers" are motivated to work on projects that don't directly lead to paychecks. The book does this without being fanatical about open source.

The book is fun to read for the easy and informal style in which it is written. It is mostly about *how* Linux came about being what it is today. It is *not* about technical details of Linux, and the few technical things in there are very sketchy. The best part of the book is the honesty with which Linus describes everything.

Linus expresses his (decisive) opinions regarding a whole lot of stuff - Mach microkernel, Java, Netscape-Mozilla project, Apple+SteveJobs, Sun+BillJoy etc. These parts make the book much more interesting. The parts on Open Source philosophy, his employment in a closed source company and commercialization of Linux are very interesting and profound.

David's contributions add chaos to the already discontinuos presentation by Linus and are at best skipped for later reading. David does shed some light on Linus's personal life.

Imagine a "computer upbringing" that did not begin with utilizing MS DOS, Windows, or any type of Apple Machine. Living in Finland with a hand-me-down Commodore Vic 20, a Timex Sinclair, and ultimately a bare bone 386. A freezing cold reality, spending day and night learning code, reading computer newsgroups, and making the most of the hardware that you have. Imagine not upgrading your computer every two weeks, but instead learning how to take your computers hardware to its potential.
These conditions led Linus Torvald to create Linux.
"Just for Fun" gives us just a glance of the excitement and enthusiasm that Linus felt as he created Linux from a simple Mimix clone to that of a full-fledged and internationally accepted OS.

Summary: This book would be a totally unremarkable memoir about a man who just loves to write software code . . . except that the man is "the accidental revolutionary" whose work led to the Linux operating system (considered by many to be the best for Web servers and personal computers) and the open source movement. Those who are interested in the potential for Linux and open source will find that Mr. Torvalds corrects many misimpressions about his life, work, and motivations that have been reported in earlier books by others. The book is entertaining in its candor and humility, but falters with its ending mini-essays on subjects like intellectual property. I graded the book down one star for its more serious efforts, which didn't work so well as the base material.

Review: Mr. Tolvalds says that he wanted to create "a fun book . . . and have fun making it . . . ." He mostly succeeded. You will enjoy learning about his views through verbatim accounts describing he and his wife taking care of their children at the same time. "I was an ugly child." He also reports that he had "atrocious taste in clothes." In sum, "I was a nerd."

From the time he got his first computer, that's the companion with which he spent most of his life. In the winters in Finland, that's one of the best ways to have fun. "If you're good enough, you can be God. On a small scale." Programming is "an exercise in creativity" and "it's the greatest feeling in the world." It was also a lot more interesting that his schoolwork.

Linux started out with his desire to write a disk driver. He posted a message about it to get feedback and the open source movement was underway. But there was no intention to create Linux at that time. It just sort of evolved into a revolution.

His personal philosophies are simple and powerful. "Greed is never good." "Well, I want to explain the meaning of life" which he summarizes as being "survival . . . social order . . . entertainment." Each activity moves through those stages. As a result, "civilization is a cult."

Those who program will love his descriptions of the machines he owned, the problems he ran into programming them, and how the problems were solved.

Although the book is a little bit technical, only those who are technophobes will find it too heavy in this area. He tells you where to skip to if you don't want to read the more technical sections.

His explanations of Linux and open source are powerful and simple. "People trust me." But "people can choose to ignore me because they can just do the stuff themselves."

He admonishes everyone. "People take me too seriously."

After you read this interesting memoir, think about how you could establish more trust with more people. What would you like to accomplish for others, if you could?

Be prepared to be an accidental revolutionary. The world needs more of them!

I read the excellent "Rebel Code" and thought that reading "Just for Fun" would be a nice idea, to know more about Linux and its author through his own words. The problem is that Linus and the journalist who helped him failed to make the book interesting, so it becomes a sequence of chapters like "yeah I needed a new driver for my modem, so...well I did it"

In one page he's doing Linux version 0.01 alone in his bedroom in Helsinki, 15 pages later he's talking about having 10 million users, and leaves no clue HOW it happened, or who was involved (guys like Dave Miller and Alan Cox, so important to the Linux community, didn't get one single mention)

So if you want to really understand not only WHAT happened but HOW it happened, I recommend "Rebel Code" instead. And it covers not only Linux, but the whole open-source movement.