"Many geeks in their early 30s who lived through
the Golden Age of personal computing will probably tell you that
they remember the timeline of their lives not by the people they
met, nor by the places they visited, but rather, by which computers
they owned and worked with. Such is the story of Linus Torvalds,
icon to the unwashed masses of the open source software
community.
Just For Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary
chronicles the events leading up to Linus's emergence as hero of
the OSS movement. The story takes us from his beginnings as a
hacker sitting on his grandfather's lap programming BASIC on a
VIC-20 in a small Helsinki apartment, to a brief stint in the
Finnish army, through his university years (all seven of them), and
his migration to Silicon Valley. The book is a candid personal
account, replete with many funny anecdotes about his life, his
world, and the people who affected him. Of course, the entire story
is told with Linus's unique brand of self-deprecating humor and
keen observations.
Linus's narrative is interspersed with personal accounts from
the book's co-author, David Diamond (an Executive Editor for Red
Herring magazine). He provides valuable third-party insight into
what makes Linus tick, and how like a fish out of water (or a deer
in the headlights, depending on how you interpret it) Linus adapted
himself to the fast-paced life of Silicon Valley."
