Free for All: How Linux and the Free Software Movement Undercut the High-Tech Titans - Hardcover

Wayner, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0756761840 ISBN 13: 9780756761844

Publisher: Diane Pub Co, 2000

Synopsis

Free for All is the story of a group of dedicated software hackers from around the world who, in their spare time, created an "open" operating system that rivals and in many ways surpasses Microsoft's.
Peter Wayner, a writer whose coverage of technology appears frequently in the New York Times and Salon magazine, tells a fascinating tale of how a simple idea - creating and giving away an "open" operating system that people can change and customize - sparked a grass-roots movement among programmers and revolutionized the software business.
Free for All goes behind the scenes, telling us about the creators and users of Linux. Along the way you will meet the leaders of this revolution, including Richard Stallman, who founded the free software movement, Linus Torvalds, the coding genius and Stallman disciple, who became the master and coordinator of the evolving system (and named it after himself), and many others who aided and nurtured the growing free software movement.

About this title

Synopsis

How Linux and the free software movement undercut the high-tech titans. A riveting look at the rise and popular acceptance of Linux and how free software is changing the nature of business and wealth. Linux and the Free Software Movement began its siege on the seemingly unshakeable Microsoft in 1999. But the story began as far back as 1984 when Richard Stallman, a prolific code writer, founded the Free Software Movement in an effort to break the bureaucratic stranglehold he saw forming in the computer industry. Enter Linus Torvalds in the early'90s, a coding genius and a long-time Stallman disciple, who became the master of Linux code. The result: a marketplace where the best software solutions win and monolithic computer Goliaths are faced with the proverbial David. Free for All tells the fascinating story of how a simple idea provided a framework that organised thousands of open code users and revolutionised the nature of business. It also tells how a group of passionate people have dedicated their lives to creating software that's easier--and cheaper--than Microsoft's to use.

Edition details

• Publisher: Diane Pub Co
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0756761840
• ISBN 13: 9780756761844
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 340