Free for All: How LINUX and the Free Software Movement Undercut the High-Tech Titans Home > Computer/ Network Books > Linux > Item 143
Free for All: How LINUX and the Free Software Movement Undercut the High-Tech Titans
by Peter Wayner
Sales Rank: 1463253
$0.18 At Amazon
Hardcover: 340 pages
Publisher: HarperBusiness; 1st edition July 13, 2000
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0066620503
ISBN-13: 978-0066620503
Product Dimensions:
9.6 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
Customer Reviews & Comments
This famous line borrowed of course from "Star Wars" is part of the battle cry that most advocates of so-called "Open Source Software" like to use and this book further examines this phenemenon. Whether or not Microsoft regards Linux (the most famous example of open source software) as a legitimate threat is an opinion best left to anyone reading it. Free for All in the early chapters compares the "open source movement" to the "1960s era" when there were those who felt the world could be a better place just by sharing the wealth among everyone. Another intriguing comparison is how some compare "open source" to a form of "communism!" Free For All describes some of the "history" of the Open Source movement, items like BSD (and its legal battle with AT&T), how Bill Joy came to invent the Vi text editor and how Richard Stallman invented the Emacs screen editor. But it also details of course how a Finnish programmer named Linus Torvalds came to invent Linux, which Mircosoft seems to regard as some kind of "threat" to Windows. While Microsoft's share of the PC market is overwhelming (aproximately 85%), there are those opting for the "penguin" on their PC. It also opines that the open source movement may now be at a crossroads, does it get too big and start charging for its software or does it remain "free?" There's also a glossary of open source terms at the back of the book that explains to "non-techies" some of the "buzz words" of open source, something I found helpful in explaining the movement. This book is a fascinating look at how the open source software movement has and may yet continue to change how software is marketed.
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