Product: 0596002874

Tomorrow I’m going to drive into town and finalize my drop. I’m dropping out of college, getting a job at a warehouse, and teaching myself how to program. I’ve been buying, borrowing, stealing, and checking out all the books I can on software design. I’m getting books from the most utilitarian (How to Write Visual C++ for Windows) to the most abstract (Human Interface by Jef Raskin). I checked this book out from the university library before I had decided one hundred percent to drop.

I knew that Richard Stallman (RMS) had wrote the compiler I use on Linux and I knew that this compiler was part of a larger effort to create an Operating System of the Future. This interested me, because I had been playing around with assembly language to write a simple game for the Atari 2600 (a video game console released in 1977; it does not have an operating system so every game interacts directly with the hardware) and a simple operating system for my x86 (standard architecture for a personal computer) laptop.

I also knew that RMS viewed proprietary software an morally wrong. This interested me a lot, because I was still on the fence about whether I was going to release my software (that I would hypothetically make) under a proprietary or open source development model.

After reading the entire book once and a few chapters twice, I don’t think I learned anything more about either of these two original points of interest. This wouldn’t be that big of a deal, if the book focused on something else. I would read a few chapters, realized I’m not the target audience, and put the book down. The book didn’t really have another focus though.

The book’s whole deal seems to be trying to let you get to know RMS. Take you into his world, and see things as he does. The book covers aspects of his childhood and his college life. My problem, is that author never goes into detail. He opens RMS’s head and takes a peak inside. But just a peak. He stops short of climbing in and looking through RMS’s eyes. So when the author opens his mind to us, to climb in, and look through the author’s eyes; all we get is the same peak he saw. You’re not going to be able to read this book and get even the shortest look through RMS’s eyes.

I’m going to explain one example, that really bugged me. The author talks about the AI Lab at MIT when RMS went there. The author compares it to an opium den. The author quotes people comparing it an opium den. The author makes a metaphor about RMS using it like and opium den. Then the author stops. The author just changes course. At that point I wanted to scream STOP into his ear. I wanted to grab the brake lever, wrench it back, and let sparks shower the corn fields. I wanted to demand the author ask RMS a thousand questions about this. Did RMS regularly sleep in the AI Lab? what was it like to wake with students coming in to learn? did anyone personally criticize RMS for acting like an opium/technology addict? how did he react? how did the experience effect him? did other people sleep in the AI Lab? how’d they get along with RMS? what were the computers in the AI Lab like? what kind of software were the writing in the AI lab? how did the software work? what was MIT’s position on the copyright for the software? The author just glosses over all of these little details. He does not focus on the technical, legal, political, or social side of things; and it leaves the book feeling soulless.

There really isn’t another biography on RMS, though. If I read my review, and knew how much I wouldn’t like this book, I still would have check it out. If you’re thinking about buying the book then go to the following url: […]

That url is chapter five. Chapter five is far and away the best part of the book. It covers a day where the author drives to the house where RMS is living, goes to lunch with him, and does an interview on him. This chapter gives you some concrete liquid information on RMS’s touchingly human aging. The smaller, lighter keyboard he fastens over his standard for the laptop. The weight he’s put on, since he had to stop dancing (folk) and how much he misses dancing. You get some insight (dim though it may be) into RMS actual life style for the first time as well. The author also shows a lot about himself, perhaps unintentionally, in this chapter.

If you read chapter five and you don’t like it, you will hate this book. If you read chapter five and it’s all right, you will not like this book. If you read chapter five and you really dig it, then you are the lucky, insane gentleman who gets the honor of digging this book.
Rating: 2
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