Product: 0066620732

I certainly hope that Linus Torvalds and David Diamond had fun writing Just for Fun. They did such a poor job of it that I was not able to enjoy reading it.
The first thing that bothered me about the book was the poor proofreading and editing. The book switches between second person and first person. There does not seem to be any reason for this in the narrative. I think it is just sloppiness. There are also a number of fairly obvious typos. You would think they could have hired a proof reader who knew that ls is a UNIX command.
Another problem with the book is that it really offers little new information about Torvalds or Linux. Linus has given many interviews over the last few years as Linux has become popular. Anyone who has read a few of those interviews will know most everything in this book.
Linus has accomplished something quite remarkable with the creation of his operating system kernel, and with the popularity he has brought to the open source movement. Unfortunately Just for Fun offers no insight into why Torvalds was the person who was able to do this. What makes Linus Torvalds so special? After reading this book that question remains unanswered.
This book would be of value to a reader who is interested in Linux and the open source movement, but some how had not read anything about it up to now. For any one other than that reader this exercise in sophomoric self indulgence is a waste of time.
Rating: 3
0066620732
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