Just for Fun

Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary is a humorous autobiography of Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel, co-written with David Diamond. The book explains Linus' view of himself, the free software movement and the development of Linux.

Linus's contribution to the operating system was its kernel, "Linux". The operating system as a whole, written as hundreds of separate projects, many under the umbrella of the GNU project, later also became known to many as "Linux".^[1]

Just for Fun has been translated into numerous languages including the first official language of Linus's home country Finnish, and later to his own first language Swedish (Linus is a member of the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland). The kernel that Linus started (and still maintains) for fun is now a part of the operating systems used by over 60 million people on the desktop and even more in web services.^[2]

Editions

• ISBN 0-06-662072-4: Hardcover (2001)
• ISBN 0-06-662073-2: Paperback (2001)
• ISBN 0-694-52539-1: Audio Cassette (abridged) (2001)
• ISBN 0-694-52544-8: Audio CD (abridged) (2001)

References

1. ^ Torvalds, Linus. "Notes for linux release 0.01". http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/Historic/old-versions/RELNOTES-0.01. "Sadly, a kernel by itself gets you nowhere. To get a working system you need a shell, compilers, a library etc. These are separate parts and may be under a stricter (or even looser) copyright. Most of the tools used with linux are GNU software..." 
2. ^ Abramson, Ronna (2004-12-15). "Linux Looms Larger Than Thought". TheStreet.com, Inc.. http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/tech/ronnaabramson/10199089.html.