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Summary: geekdom inspired
Review: This was a good quick read. It gives the definition for the heroes of the maturing information age... honest, talented, flawed, driven, pragmatic. Try it out.
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Summary: Linus Gets On His Soap Box!
Review: Overall I thought this book was a pretty good read. I really recomend this book for those who have yet to delve into the world of Linus Torvalds.For the most part the book is pretty autobiographical, you get some fun tid bits about his life and whatnot; however, a good portion of this book uses some pretty technical langauge, that for the reader who may not be to familiar with basic computer science issues may get lost in the book (Linus suggests for the reader who is not that savy with programming to skip that portion of the book, but that's probably the best part of the book). I think the big flaw of the book is that towards the end it just turns into one big rant... it is fun to read Linus' views on "open source" which are a bit surprizing. All and all, I'll recomend this to anyone who frequents slashdot.
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Summary: Just for Fun : The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary
Review: A fun book with lots of tongue in cheek, self-defacing, humor. If you want to learn more about Linux skip this one. If you are just Linus groupie and want to know everything about him then this is a great book for you. It is Linus' view on life, the universe, and everything. He starts the book learning to code on his grandfather's lap with a Commodore Vic-20 all the way to buying his new BMW and moving into his new million-dollar house. Great for a rainy day when the power goes out and you can't use your computer.
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Summary: An interesting book, but poorly organized
Review: I thought this book was a very interesting read... it gives personal insight to Linus Torvalds and the process that went into the creation of Linux. The personal anecdotes left me with a better understand of who Linus Torvalds is. However, the book repeats much of it's information two or three times. The same analogies were used over and over again to illustrate the same point.
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Summary: Enjoyable book
Review: 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.
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Summary: As much as I like Linus...
Review: This book is hastily written and poorly crafted. You may find useful information or get a good feeling for who Linus is, but this is not great literature by any stretch.
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Summary: UNIX as Poetry
Review: I enjoyed reading this book a great deal. It gets four stars because 5 stars are reserved for Tolkein, LeGuin, and Adams. Nonetheless, it was a very enjoyable read. Linus has an easy, open writing style that is easy to sit down with. The stories of his life are entertaining, and when the man writes about UNIX it is poetry. Indeed, if I have a critcism it is that he wrote about his writing LINUX rather that about LINUX itself. There is just a little hint of what was under the surface when he briefly talks about monolithic vs. microkernels. I wanted more about his thoughts on computer software, hardware, and engineering. Another part I enjoyed was when Linus was musing about the place of open source software vs. commercial software. Of course I've been aware of GNU and open source, but I'd never realized how profoundly different the dynamics are compared to commercial products. Linus' writings are perceptive and balanced between the two worlds. David Diamond's big contribution to this book was getting Linus to write it. For that he deserves a thank you and whatever share of the profits he gets.
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Summary: Real Insight into Linux, its founder and the future.
Review: I loved this book. Linus Torvalds is a unique individual: a very bright guy with no megalomaniacal ego. This book is his autobiography, written with Red Herring's David Diamond. What I found refreshing was that while Diamond certainly proofed it and managed the effort, the book is not some detached ghost-writing. Instead, the book maintains two narratives: Torvalds' first person recounting of his life, Linux, and his family life, and Diamond's outsider perspective, looking in. The dual-narrative device works, and Diamond's narrative (set off in italics) gives the book a refreshing shift that makes the book all the more readable. Linus Torvalds, it turns out, was a geeky kid growing up near Helsinki, Finland. Part of the swedish-speaking minority there, he was the son of a communist activist (dad) and journalist (mom), who divorced when he was young. With one sister (who also became a journalist later in life), young Linus (age 10) gained an early interest in computers that never stopped. In school he was the wiz at math and physics, and was generally referred to as the "Math Guy." From this start, the narrative runs to how at a university level he decided to learn the innards of the Intel 386 CPU, and decided that the the way to do that would be to port Minix (an academic poor cousin of unix) to the i386 CPU. The detail of the effort, and his description of how thus Linux was born is sufficient for the expert reader, but well-explained enough for the lay computer user to comprehend. Interspersed in this book is Torvalds' trademark self-deprecating humor. When asked in a public setting how he planned to capture the server and desktop markets, he answers that he hasn't personally captured anyone. The point of this and other magic moments, when corporate computerdom, and the trade press bump into him, is the realization that being the next Bill Gates was *not ever* his motivation. There is a clear sense you get reading this book that Linus Torvalds and Linux are phenomena that are structured like forces of nature, against which any corporate bastion of proprietary software (Microsoft?) will ultimately inexorably fall. I once heard Jon ("Mad Dog") Hall, the founder of Linux International say that he had a presentation about Linux, early on, with a single slide that read, "Linux Is Inevitable." Torvalds understands that, and is not worried for the future. He even provides a tripartite condensation for the meaning of life, which operate as motivators for human action: 1. survival, 2. social order, & 3. fun. He argues that all endeavors start at (1), and evolve toward (3). Linux for him was (2) the social framework of the open source movement, and definitely (3) fun. The man seems well-adjusted and "normal." Very refreshing given the driven insanity of Gates, Ellison and McNealy. I highly recommend this book for its detail about a very important anti-hero of our times, who has a better view of the future than the proprietary computer moguls. The ultimate future of Linux? Torvalds thinks it will ultimately disappear into the devices of the future, and will not be thought about, in the same way that you do not ponder upgrades to your microwave's operating system today. What we are left with by the last page of the book is a normal guy with a family, living in California, and working for revolutionary low-power chipmaker Transmeta. Linus is back to his first love: CPU's. This is a great book, and a fast read. Buy it!
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Summary: Linus ....You Did It !!!!
Review: Reading this book and living (or re-living) the history of Linux, since it's inception on a tiny 4MG 386, I realized the Importrance of Linus Trovald's Contribution to both the Open Source Movement and Unix as an operating system. I must admit I always hated Unix. As a programmer of more than 20 years, never understood the need to complicate the hell out of things with weird commands like awk and grep and all of that. After installing Linux on some of my servers, I can tell you I will use Linux wherever needed as it is a great operating system. But no other flavor of unix, please ... Do not ask me to enjoy Solaris or Zenix or Open SCO. Linux is the operating system of the future. The book is excellent for Geeks and Non-Geeks alike. We owe a lot to Linus and I hope (I am sure in fact), Linux will not be his only contribution to Man Kind
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Summary: The next Bill Gates, but not as greedy.
Review: This is a very interesting book from someone who lived with compliers for years. I never really understood the thinkings behind open source untill I read this book. This is a great book for those interested in the other side of technology business that is not driven by pure greed. I give it 4 stars because I don't think it might appeal to non technical people. Other than that, it's worth the money. The best lesson I learned from this book is never go for predictable success and lose the chance to achieve really really big sucess. Linux definitely has the potential to be bigger than Windows
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