“In the icy, cellphone-mad birthplace of Linux, networks
rule. It’s a matter of survival.“
“Writing an online book presents some unique challenges — and
opportunities. With this installment, I decided to break with
boring linear order and go straight to the first half of Chapter 6,
rather than the expected Chapter 2. Why? Because three weeks ago I
spent a week in Finland, the birthplace of Linux, and I wanted to
write about it before the memories faded. And if I write it, why
wait to publish it?…”
“Finland’s love affair with high technology runs deep. The
closer you look, the less remarkable it seems that a 21-year-old
undergraduate at the University of Helsinki cooked up some code
that ended up throwing the entire software industry into turmoil.
For Linux is far from Finland’s only contribution to Internet
culture: To an extent way out of proportion to its size, Finland
has bequeathed unto the Net a valuable and culturally rich set of
essential tools.”