- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: HarperPaperbacks; Reprint edition (20 Mar 2011)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0066620732
- ISBN-13: 978-0066620732
- Product Dimensions: 20.5 x 13.4 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
252,245 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #55 in Books > Biography > Science, Mathematics & Technology > Computers
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Linus Torvalds wrote the Linux kernel but Just For Fun could refer to writing the book. It isn't about Linux, it's about Linus. Here he tells us about his childhood, his time at Helsinki University, his marriage to six times karate champion Tove, about his children and about his attitude to life.
He comes across as a nice guy who, until Linux made him a celebrity, interacted with the world only tangentially. This could be in part a response to his frankly weird early home life in Finland.
David Diamond (of Red Herring magazine) acts as editor while Linus tells it like it is. But while Linus appears open, the story he tells is polished. As Liberace used to say when asked why people liked his take on the classics, "I leave out the boring bits". His four years in a darkened room with a computer as a boy may not have made gripping reading for everyone.
Linus is probably brilliant, but it's obsessive hard work, alone behind closed curtains, which enabled him to create Linux. One of the most interesting aspects of his story is how success--in his marriage and the wider world--has changed him. If we're to believe his own words his wife and children together with a Californian lifestyle are now his chief source of fun.
Linus Torvalds will one day rate an academic biography. In the meantime, the message here is that one route to personal fulfilment is doing what you want to do, as well as you can, for your own reasons--even just for fun. --Steve Patient --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Time Magazine/Time Inc Some people are born to lead millions. Others are born to write world-changing software. Only one person does both. Torvalds. Financial Times, June 20, 2001 Linus Torvalds created Linux as a gift - and has forced us to ponder the nature of success.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Linus turned out to be that strange combination of what you expected and what you didn't. He is certainly a geek who spent a large amount of time hidden away working at his computer. However I found his views on Open Source refreshing and his general outlook on the industry and life, to be unexpected. Following his travels from Finland to California revealed alot about why he has succeeded and how it has changed him.
Linus in certainly unlike the rest of the key figures in the computer industry and I hope that we get many more like him.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is partly a biography and partly the autobiography of Linus Torvalds. But it is not really detailed enough to qualify as a very good biography. (I suppose writing the life of a 32-year-old is a bit premature anyway.)
It is also partly the story of Torvalds' brainchild, the Linux operating system. Again, though, it is not really detailed enough, neither in the technical description of Linux' birth and growth nor in the discussion of the system's role in today's computer industry, to seem complete.
So you don't really get the full picture of the man, nor the full picture of Linux. What do you get? Well... Something about Linus' childshood and familiy, the image of a lonely hacker behind drawn curtains in a tiny Helsinki bedroom, something of Linus' thoughts about Linux; the whys, whens and (sometimes too few of these) hows, and quite lot about Linus' allegedly very prominent nose.
I didn't care very much for the first parts of this book. The switches between Linus' own account and David Diamond's narration are not very smooth. Also there is far too much of the story of the story. (I'm not really interested in what car David and Linus drove down what California highways.)
The strenght of the book is that although the autobiographical parts may leave something to be desired, they draw a sort of picture of a clever and strong-minded person, and a very nice guy thet you feel you know a little better after this read.
BTW, the book has no pictures whatsoever, not even a portrait of Linus' with his much-described nose on the cover.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It's nice to hear a more personal account of Linux and Linus from the man himself, however it was badly written. There are lots of places where things have been repeated in the book (sometimes literally the same thing has been written in more than one chapter).
If they had spent more time editing the book to get it right, I would have given it four stars maybe.
If you're going to buy two open source books this year buy this one, if you are only going to buy one, make in Glyn Moody's 'Rebel Code'.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
I read it all in 10 hours - it's a cracker
He (Torvalds) was pushed into it by a journalist called David Diamond, but it is evidently mainly Torvalds' ( "I know I am being a jerk when I say 'journalists are scum etc' it's... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Robin Pain
Nice read, somewhat inspiring!
I read this book because I wanted to learn more about the history of the Linux kernel and Linus Torvalds. This is an excellent book, very easy to read and amusing. Read more
Published on 17 Jun 2009 by Marquez Pablo
Insightful!
In Just for Fun, Linus Torvalds, the Finnish creator of the Linux operating system, mixes his personal story, told in both narrative and e-mail dispatches, with the saga of his... Read more
Published on 9 Jun 2004 by Rolf Dobelli
Hacking Away in the Frozen Tundra and Silicon Valley
Summary: This book would be a totally unremarkable memoir about a man who just loves to write software code . . . Read more
Published on 8 May 2004 by Donald Mitchell
A Legend Life on Paper
A great book it is indeed, I haven't read any autobiographies before -- so I cannot really comment on how well it does at being one. Read more
Published on 22 Oct 2003 by Owen E. Campbell-Kelly
Funny and real..
If the plethora (and I use the word knowing its negative nuance) of autobiographies of 20-year old popstars and their angst over clothes/ cars/ clubs has made you wonder about the... Read more
Published on 20 Oct 2003 by S. Yogendra
Insightful!
In Just for Fun, Linus Torvalds, the Finnish creator of the Linux operating system, mixes his personal story, told in both narrative and e-mail dispatches, with the saga of his... Read more
Published on 15 Oct 2003 by Rolf Dobelli
The rise of optimism
This book tells us about the ordinary life of an... outstanding person. From that, it becomes easy for the reader to identify him/herself to Linus. Read more
Published on 7 Aug 2002 by Denis Arnaud
It makes you happy!
I read finnish translation of this book and it made me realy happy, this is best book in the whole world. Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2002 by Petri Koistinen
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