What I learned from reading Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary by Linus Torvalds and David Diamond.
During the euphoria of the final years of the 20th century, a revolution was happening among all other revolutions.
Seemingly overnight, the Linux operating system caught the world's attention.
It had exploded from the small bedroom of its creator, Linus Torvalds, to attract a cultish following of near militant geeks.
Suddenly it was infuriating the corporate powerhouses controlling the planet from a party of one.
It now counted millions of users on every continent, including Antarctica and even outer space, if you count NASA outposts.
Not only was it the most common operating system, running server computers dishing out all the content on the World Wide Web, but its very development model, an intricate web of its own, encompassing hundreds of thousands of volunteer computer programmers, had grown to become the largest collaborative project in the history of the world.
People wanted to learn more about the kid who, if he did not start at all, at least jump started it, and was in effect its leader.
The trouble was, the more successful Linux and open source became, the less he wanted to talk about it.
The accidental revolutionary started Linux because playing on a computer was fun.
Revolutionaries aren't born, revolutions can't be planned.
Revolutions can't be managed.
Revolutions happen, and sometimes revolutionaries just get stuck with it.
That was an excerpt from the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is just for fun.
The story of an accidental revolutionary.
And it was written by Linus Torvalds and David diamond.
I'm going to read part of the back cover because I think when I read this paragraph, this podcast, like the format of this podcast, is going to make a lot more sense because this book is, is written in a very unique way.
Before I read that paragraph though, I got to tell you how I got the idea to do this podcast, or to read this book, rather.
This was another example of a listener recommending a book that I wasn't even aware of.
And this book is really interesting, really easy to read.
So it says now, in a narrative that zips along with the speed of an email, Torvalds gives a history of his renegade software while candidly revealing the quirky mind of a genius.