Rebel Code: Inside Linux and the Open Source Revolution

As a veteran programmer (on *nix, MS and Mac) I have read many "history of," "biography of," "story of" books, and I've enjoyed a lot of them. However, I can think of none that inspired me as much as this book. I thought it was very well-researched, incredibly entertaining, and, as I've already mentioned, truly inspiring. I don't see how any programmer could read this book and not want to go out and immediately develop something new, unique and revolutionary. For that matter, I don't see how anyone whose just interested in computers and technology could read this book and not want to immediately want to learn how to program. While I was reading it, I couldn't shut up about how great it was. Since I finished it, I find myself still thinking about it a lot--and I still can't shut up about it! I really don't think it matters what your techno-political background is, if you love programming, computers or just technology in general, I think you'll really enjoy this book.

From the cover and the initial descriptions I've read about this book, I thought it was going to be centered around Linux. In reality, it covers most of the major open source projects. This book describes the beginnings of free software and many of the most innovative projects including: Linux, Perl, Xfree86, Apache, Emacs, Hurd, and many others. "Rebel Code" is well researched and goes in to just enough detail. Mr. Moody is careful not inundate the reader with too many details. Besides giving a history of Linux and open source, the book examines the motivating force behind the hacker ethic and the fruits of free software.

Moody has done an excellent job of bringing to 'life' many of the key characters in this mini-revolution. He even stops and introduces aspects of their personal life that affect their work. He talks about many players including Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, Larry Wall, Guido van Rossum, Eric Raymond, Ken Thompson, Andrew Tanenbaum, etc.He touches on the hacker work ethic, the motives, the religious factors (both in a traditional sense and flame-war sense), and some of the great exploits of hacker lore.My only complaint is his presentation of the 'other side'. I think it would've have been interesting if his closing pages were expanded to include more possible road-blocks for the movement. Although I agree that the books focus was supposed to be biased. :-)Overall this book is just plain fun and informative. -Ali

I found Rebel Code to be riveting. I loved his account of the complicated interactions between many of the great code hackers of our time. In truth, reading this book gave me insight into the fragility, and the resiliency of open source. If you are interested in the elaborate history of open source projects such as emacs, gcc, linux, perl, etc... then this is the book for you.

Glyn Moody does an excellent job on showing how the Linux kernel came about as a culminating event of work started years before by other hackers. It explains how, from a humble bedroom and a 386, came the missing piece of the free software movement.The book shows how the free software movement and GNU/Linux are bringing computing back to a state where the users have control over what they are running, after 20 years of proprietary software ruling.I recommend this book for those interested in computing. Every professional would benefit from its reading.