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Just for Fun: The story of an accidental revolutionary by Linus Torvalds and
David Diamond, Texere Publishing, 拢17.99, ISBN 15879900806

IN 1991 a Finnish university student living in his mother鈥檚 apartment posted
a short announcement to a computer newsgroup. It was the beginning of a
revolution. No one could have predicted that Linux, the giveaway operating
system he had just launched, would challenge Microsoft and may yet change the
face of computing.

Now that the success of Linux has made Linus Torvalds a cult hero, we are
treated to the story of his life, Just for Fun. It takes him from the
obscurity of hacking in a small Helsinki bedroom to celebrity status and a small
mansion in Silicon Valley.

鈥淪ome people remember time according to the cars they drove or the jobs they
held or the places they lived or the sweethearts they dated. My years are marked
by computers,鈥� writes Torvalds. And he鈥檚 not kidding.

You get the feeling that, left to himself, Torvalds would have made this
merely the story of his computers. Co-author David Diamond has laboured mightily
to help Torvalds include other relevant facts鈥攆riends, family, growing
up.

The result is a funny and readable book. Torvalds has charm and a low-key,
self-deprecating wit. Hackers don鈥檛 need to be told to read this book. The
surprise is, the rest of us are likely to enjoy it too.