Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Outside, a louring Seattle sky broods over the clumps of squat white buildings scattered around an extensive campus in constant expansion..." (more)
Key Phrases: top hackers, free software world, open source companies, Richard Stallman, Alan Cox, Microsoft Windows (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Everyone in computing has heard of Linux--hundreds of millions use it every day. Every Net user accesses Linux systems dozens of times during any Net session. Yet, because people associate products with companies, Linux--with its thousands of largely anonymous volunteer developers and free availability--is a difficult fit with our world view.

Rebel Code puts Linux into historical and social contexts. Based largely on interviews with the main players and precise historical data (Linux kernel releases are dated to the second), it traces "free software" from its early '80s origin--with Robert Stallman's founding of the GNU Project--and takes it as far as the end of 2000--with GNU/Linux becoming a worldwide phenomenon that runs handheld PDAs, PCs and Macs, IBM mainframes, and the world's biggest supercomputers.

Glyn Moody charts every milestone in the development of the Linux kernel, from Linus Torvalds's first installation of Minix. As importantly, he follows the progress of major "free software" projects (essential to the success of GNU/Linux) from Emacs and GCC to Sendmail and XFree 86, and finishes with KDE and Gnome.

The end result is a curiously exciting and compulsively readable tale that compares with Tracy Kidder's book, The Soul of a New Machine. It's endlessly fascinating, and you'll be up reading well past your bedtime. --Steve Patient, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

A high-velocity chronicle of the open source movement-and its impact on computing, business, and culture.

The open source saga has many fascinating chapters. It is partly the story of Linus Torvalds, the master hacker who would become chief architect of the Linux operating system. It is also the story of thousands of devoted programmers around the world who spontaneously worked in tandem to complete the race to shape Linux into the ultimate killer app. Rebel Code traces the remarkable roots of this unplanned revolution. It echoes the twists and turns of Linux's improbable development, as it grew through an almost biological process of accretion and finally took its place at the heart of a jigsaw puzzle that would become the centerpiece of open source. With unprecedented access to the principal players, Moody has written a powerful tale of individual innovation versus big business. Rebel Code provides a from-the-trenches perspective and looks ahead to how open source is challenging long-held conceptions of technology, commerce, and culture.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1st edition (July 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738206709
• ISBN-13: 978-0738206707
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #477,632 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The greatest history of Linux that (n)ever was, February 21, 2001

By	Primoz Peterlin (Ljubljana, Slovenia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution (Hardcover)

As someone who has been tracking the progress of Linux since 1992, and has been using it continuously since 1994, I have been looking for some years now - at least since 1998, when Linux hit the mainstream news - who is going be the first to come up with a history of Linux; something among similar lines as Gleick did for chaos theory. Now we have the winner: Glyn Moody, a British IT journalist.

Not always organized in a chronological order, Rebel Code follows the progress of Linux and several other open-source projects (XFree86, Sendmail, Perl, Apache, Samba...) from the grandfather of Linux, Unix, in late sixties; then we follow the stories of Andrew Tannenbaum's Minix system and Richard Stallman's project GNU through the eighties, until we finally arrive to the beginnings of Linux in 1991. From then on, we follow it rise and blossom, with its added functionalities, with the first contributors to the kernel starting to appear, and then the first Linux distributions.

If the first half of the book deals mostly with technical topics, the second half - following the decision of Netscape Corporation to open the source code of their Web browser - is mostly concerned with the socio-economical issues of the open source model, the differences between it and the idea of free software; the huge initial success of the IPOs of open-source companies (Moody is much less vocal about the fact that they lost most of their values a year later), possible alternative uses of Linux (handheld and internet appliances) and musings on the possible future of the free/open source movement.

Speaking of the latter, I miss a more thorough and independent analysis on whether the author sees the free/open source development model as a sustainable strategy or just a part of the dotcom craze. In that aspect, Rebel Code doesn't bring much one would not already know from the writing of Larry McVoy and Eric Raymond. I may not be alone here. Anybody who has already been tracking the progess of Linux - and I believe the majority of readership ought to be sought in this audience - will probably find some 80% of the book already familiar. The rest present the interviews the author conducted with some principal contributors throughout the 2000, and contained many new and interesting facts to me. The whole is packaged in a fairly pleasant and readable form.

There is something about Moody that makes me uneasy, though. I cannot quite decide whether it is his intellectual criticism, or is he simply looking for some cheap drama. His best known writing on Linux before this book was his 1997 HotWired article titled "The Greatest OS That (N)ever Was" where he depicts his worrisome views about the future of Linux in dramatic tones ("...But Linux also sits at a critical juncture..."). In Rebel Code, he seems to be especially proud of his description of the schism that was threatening in Linux development in 1998, which "... nobody outside the Linux world noticed."

Finally, there is no apologize for the complete omission of references. Linux is a child of Internet, its development was carried out in the open, and so it is perhaps the best documented OS ever. This book had a wonderful chance to become the authoritative list of resources concerning the Linux history, and flunked it. On the positive side, Rebel Code does have a decent index.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How it came to be..., July 12, 2003

By	The Duke (Indianapolis, IN USA) - See all my reviews

I very much enjoyed this book. Mr Moody writes well and entertainingly about the origins of the Free Software Foundation and the Open Source Movement. The historic characters in the drama are well drawn and engaging. Time and again I'd remark 'So, that's where he/it came from!' as Moody traced the origin of Apache or Samba or Alan Cox. I was very much reminded of the excellent history of the PC 'Fire in the Valley' that traces the origins of the PC industry to where we find it today. I would recommend Rebel Code to someone interested in GNU/Linux and the inner workings of how it came to be. This is a book for the tech historian, not necessarily the hacker.
If I were to fault the book it would be that is is 3 years old. As such it misses the effect of the tech bust/recession on the Linux movement, and the growing successes it has achieved recently from the third world (e.g. China's Red Flag distribution) to supercomputing. I can only hope Mr. Moody will correct this fault with another edition.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating account of FSF/GNU & OSS movement(s)., April 7, 2001

By	Ali-Reza Anghaie (Manchester, CT United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution (Hardcover)

Moody has done an excellent job of bringing to 'life' many of the key characters in this mini-revolution. He even stops and introduces aspects of their personal life that affect their work. He talks about many players including Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, Larry Wall, Guido van Rossum, Eric Raymond, Ken Thompson, Andrew Tanenbaum, etc.

He touches on the hacker work ethic, the motives, the religious factors (both in a traditional sense and flame-war sense), and some of the great exploits of hacker lore.

My only complaint is his presentation of the 'other side'. I think it would've have been interesting if his closing pages were expanded to include more possible road-blocks for the movement. Although I agree that the books focus was supposed to be biased. :-)

Overall this book is just plain fun and informative. -Ali