Just for fUN
/
or
THE STORY OF AN ACCIDENTAL REVOLUTIONARY
LINUS TORVALDS,
CREATOR OF LINUX,
AND DAVID DIAMOND
JUST FOR FUN. Copyright @ 2001 by LinusTort/aids andDavidDiamond.
All rights reserved. Printed in theUnited States ofAmerica. Nopart ofthisbook
maybe used orreprodmed in any manner whatsoever without written permission
except in thecase ofbriefquotations emhodied in ",i1ical articles and reviews.
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FIRST EDITION
Designed by Fritz Metsch
"IstheLinux Revolution Over" beginning onpage 186 is reprintedfrom ZD Net,
August26, 1999, withpermission. Copyright © 1999, ZD Na lnc.
All rights reserved.
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publkation Data
Tort/aids, Linus, 1969-
Just forfun : thestory ofan a«idenral revolutionary I LinusTort/aids and
DavidDiamond.
p.
ISBN 0-06-662072-4 (he)
1. Tort/aids, Linus, 1969- 2. Computerprogrammers-Finland-Biography.
3. Linux.l. Diamond, David. II. Tille.
em.
QA76.2.T67 T67 2001
005.1'092~21
fB}
01
02
03
04 05 QW 10
9 8
7 6 5
4 3
2
1
00-054199
To Tove and Patricia, Daniela, and Celeste. I always wanted to be
surrounded byyoung women, and you made it so.
To Tia and Kaley. Boy do I fee! blessed.
This wouldn't qualifyas acknowledgments without thedropping ofsome
important names, so here goes:
we acknowledge our editor, Adrian Zackheim, who caved in to our every
demand; Erin Richnow, theHarperCollins assistant editor who was more
on top ofthisproject than wewere; our agents, Bill Gladstone of Water
side Productions and Kris Dah! ofICM, who couldn't have been speedier
in the forwarding ofour checks to us; Sara Torvalds, who hasthe best
backup memory on theFennoscandia peninsula-and operates in three
languages-and William and Ruth Diamond, who read theoriginal
manuscript and kept repeating, "N,0, really, it'sgood. "
My heartwas in mythroat when he was growing up: How on Earthwas
he going to meet any nice girls that way?
-Anna Torvalds
Introduction:
Post-Its from a Revolution
Duringthe euphoria ofthefinal years ofthetwentieth century, a
revolution washappening among all theother revolutions. Seemingly
overnight, the Linux operating system caught theworld's attention. It had
explodedfrom thesmallbedroom of its creator, LinusTorvalds, toattract
a cultish following of near-militant geeks. Suddenly it was infiltrating
thecorporate powerhouses controlling theplanet. From a party ofone it
now counted millions ofusers on every continent, including Antarctica,
and even outer space, ifyou count NASA outposts. Not only wasit the
most common operating system running server computers dishing outall the
content on theWorld Wide W'eb, but its very development model-an
intricate web ofits own, encompassing hundreds ofthousands ofvolunteer
computer programmers-had grown to become thelargest collaborative
project in thehistory of theworld. The open source philosophy behind it all
was simple: Information, in this case thesource code orbasic instructions
behind theoperating system, should be free andfreely sharedfor anyone
interested in improving upon it. But those improvements should also be
freely shared. Thesame concept hadsupported centuries ofscientific discov
ery. Now it wasfinding a home in thecorporate sphere, and it waspossi
ble to imagine itspotential as a framework for creating thebest of
anything: a legal strategy, an opera.
Some folks caught a glimpse of thefuture and didn'tlike what
they saw. Linus's round, bespectacled countenance became a favored dart
board target within Microsoft Corporation, which wasnow faced with its
first honest-to-goodness competitive threat. But, more often, people wanted
to learn more about the kid who--ifhedid notstartit all-at least
ix
jump-started it and was, in effect, its leader. The trouble was, themore
successful Linu» and open source became, theless hewanted to talk about
it. Theaccidental revolutionary started Linux because playingon a com
puter wasfun (andalso because thealternatives weren't that attractive).
So when someone triedtoconvince him tospeak at a major event bytelling
him that his millions offollowers just wanted toat least see him, in the
flesh, Linusgood-naturedly offered toparticipate in a dunk-tank instead.
That wouldbe more fun, heexplained. And a way of raising money.
They declined. It wasn't their idea ofhowto rnna revolution.
Revolutionaries aren't born. Revolutions can't be planned. Revolu
tions can't be managed.
Revolutions happen....
-David Diamond
x
just for Fun