The rebel code : the inside story of Linux and the open source revolution

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 About the Author Glyn Moody is a London-based writer who has been covering Linux almost since its inception. He has published major features on it in Wired, New Scientist, and Salon, and has written for The Economist and the Financial Times. "Open source" began as the mantra of a small group of idealistic hackers and has blossomed into the all-important slogan for progressive business and computing. This fast-moving narrative starts at ground zero, with the dramatic incubation of open-source software by Linux and its enigmatic creator, Linus Torvalds. With firsthand accounts, it describes how a motley group of programmers managed to shake up the computing universe and cause a radical shift in thinking for the post-Microsoft era. A powerful and engaging tale of innovation versus big business, Rebel Code chronicles the race to create and perfect open-source software, and provides the ideal perch from which to explore the changes that cyberculture has engendered in our society. Based on over fifty interviews with open-source protagonists such as Torvalds and open source guru Richard Stallman, Rebel Code captures the voice and the drama behind one of the most significant business trends in recent memory. Contents 6 Note to the Paperback Edition 8 Acknoweldgments 10 Prologue 12 1 The Coolest Year 16 2 The New GNU Thing 24 3 A Minor Rebellion 42 4 Factor X 66 5 Patching Up 82 6 Boot Then Root 98 7 Linus 2.0 117 8 Learning from Berkeley 131 9 The Art of Code 151 10 Low-Down in the Valley 173 11 Mozilla Dot Party 193 12 A Foothold 216 13 Distributions and Shares 231 14 Open for Business 248 15 Trolls Versus Gnomes 263 16 Lies, Damned Lies, and Benchmarks 280 17 Tomorrow's Hothouse 300 18 Beyond the Market 316 Afterword 335 Index 343 The open source movement troubles big industry giants like Microsoft because good programming in GNU / Linux software code is made even better by sharing and distributing its source freely for improvement, mostly without financial profit to the industry and without waiting on "upgraded versions" from the originator. A spirited look at the "open source revolution" shows how one innovator, Linus Torvalds, created an operating system with and open code and challenged Microsoft's hold on the computing world. Reprint. 15,000 first printing. This book describes in vivid detail the dreamers and businessmen who have turned a private passion into a global phenomenon. It looks at LINUX, the first operating system to be developed outside corporate and state control IF 1998 AND 1999 WERE THE WORST YEARS in Microsoft's history, 1991, by contrast, must have been a period when Bill Gates was feeling good.