Linus tells his story from the heart. From being a college student living at home spending inordinate amount of time staring into a computer screen (and little time doing much else - your stereotypical computer geek if you will) to being a minor celebrity in 2001 when this book was published, Linus tells his story in his own words. He includes the emotions, personal anecdotes, and enough family/childhood background to understand his motivations.
Do his opinions on the meaning of life, celebrity, or even semi-technical issues like the underpinnings of Mac OS X matter that much to the average reader? Probably not. They probably only matter to his most die hard fans, which seems ostensibly whom this book is aimed at. Yet, at the same time, they make for interesting reading since his famously brutal honesty is on full display throughout the book. I would in fact expand the audience a little bit further to include most technical people involved with the software world - frankly a significant portion of the book could be boring/incomprehensible to those with no background in software.
Just for Fun also includes an interesting dual narrative, featuring the ghost writer (David Diamond) taking on full first person voice for some chapters (clearly indicated in italics). At first these interludes may seem jarring, but overtime they reveal more about Linus's character and story than we would get from the "Linus chapters" alone. Neither the chapters by Linus nor the chapters by Diamond are particularly well written, but they're also not unnecessarily long, flowery, or philosophical. Linus writes in Just for Fun as he does on the kernel mailing list - direct and to the point.
In short, Just for Fun tells the inspiring story of how a single passionate software developer can change the world and have fun doing it. It's your classic underdog story. It's good reading for software developers everywhere, especially those with some sense of computer history and an interest in operating systems.
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