Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution - Softcover

Glyn Moody

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140298045 ISBN 13: 9780140298048

Publisher: Perseus Books Group, 2002

Synopsis

Rebel Code is the compelling account of how a band of mavericks took on big business and revolutionized the computer world.

In 1991 a young student, Linus Torvalds, bought a PC and began writing a new software program. It started as a hobby, but in a few years he and a global alliance of hackers, linked by the Net, had developed an operating system that now threatens Microsoft. GNU/Linux is used by millions, and most troubling of all for the corporate giants, it is free.

In this definitive account, Glyn Moody tells the astonishing David-and-Goliath story of Linux, placing it in the broader history of the free software movement, and shows what can be achieved when creativity and co-operation rise above the profit motive.

About this title

Review

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Perseus Books Group
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140298045
• ISBN 13: 9780140298048
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 343