Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution

Glyn Moody

ISBN 10: 0713995203 / ISBN 13: 9780713995206

Published by Allen Lane 25/01/2001, 2001

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Bibliographic Details

Title: Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source ...

Publisher: Allen Lane 25/01/2001

Publication Date: 2001

Binding: Soft cover

Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis:

In 1991, a 21 year-old student, Linus Torvalds set about writing a free alternative to the UNIX operating system. The system he established is now used by more than 10 million people & the numbers are growing. It is fast, it can be used on any number of hardware platforms, from multi-chip super computers to palm pilots, &, astonishingly, it's free. The story of its development reveals the power of cooperation in the development of new technology. Hundreds of programmers from around the world world have worked outside government and corporate control to create a product that has caused conventional business to blanch. The book describes in vivid detail the dreamers and businessmen who have turned a private passion into a global phenomenon.

Review:

Everyone in computing has heard of Linux and 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.

The Rebel Code puts Linux into an historical and social context. 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 eighties 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 running handheld PDAs, PCs and Macs, IBM mainframes and powering the world's biggest supercomputers.

Glyn Moody charts every milestone in the development of the Linux kernel from Linus Torvalds' first installation of Minix. As important, he follows the progress of major Free Software projects--essential to the success of Gnu/Linux--from Emacs and GCC to Sendmail and XFree86 finishing with KDE and Gnome.

The end result is a curiously exciting and compulsively readable tale which stands comparison with Tracy Kidder's book, The Soul of a New Machine. Endlessly fascinating, you'll be up reading it well past bedtime. --Steve Patient