Just for Fun : The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary

Just for Fun

The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary

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Just for Fun
The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary
Copyright © 2001
Linus Benedict Torvalds

Co-Author: David Diamonds
First Published 2001 by HarperBusiness
ISBN 0066620732 (ISBN13: 9780066620732)

 
Once upon a time
Linus Torvalds
was a skinny unknown, just another nerdy Helsinki techie who had been fooling around with computers since childhood. Then he wrote a groundbreaking operating system and distributed it via the Internet—for free. Today Torvalds is an international folk hero. And his creation LINUX is used by over 12 million people as well as by companies such as IBM.
Now, in a narrative that zips along with the speed of e-mail, Torvalds gives a history of his renegade software while candidly revealing the quirky mind of a genius. The result is an engrossing portrayal of a man with a revolutionary vision, who challenges our values and may change our world.

My heart was in my throat when he was growing up: How on Earth was he going to meet any nice girls that way?

Introduction: Post-its from a Revolution

Some folks caught a glimpse of the future and didn’t like what they saw. Linus’s round, bespectacled countenance became a favored dart-board target within Microsoft Corporation, which was now faced with its first honest-to-goodness competitive threat. But, more often, people wanted to learn more about the kid who—if he did not start it 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 (and also because the alternatives weren’t that attractive). So when someone tried to convince him to speak at a major event by telling him that his millions of followers just wanted to at least
see
him, in the flesh, Linus good-naturedly offered to participate in a dunk-tank instead. That would be more fun, he explained. And a way of raising money.

Revolutions
happen….

X-Authentication-Warning: penguin. transmeta.com:

torvalds owned process doing-bs

Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 14:12:27-0700 (PDT)

From: Linus Torvalds
[email protected]

To: David Diamond

Subject: Ho hum..

MIME-Version: 1.0

I hope this is still your email address. I noticed that I didn’t have any contact information for you anywhere, probably because I’ve trashed your business card along with all the others, and because you’ve actually contacted me by phone much more than by email.

I’ve thought a lot over the weekend, and if you’re interested, I think I’m getting more and more interested. Let’s cut a deal: If you think we can make a fun book, and more importantly if you think we can have fun making it, let’s go for it. You’d drag me (with family) camping and (without family) skydiving. Things that I wouldn’t ever do otherwise, just because I think I’m too busy. Give me an excuse to do the things I haven’t done during the last three years even though all the opportunities are there… So maybe I wouldn’t read a book about me when it’s done, but at least I’d have fun with it.

Linus

Linus Torvalds

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the following establishments for their role in creating this book
––
or at least making it fun (None of these places have paid us any money. Which is a damn shame.)

FM 107.7 the Bone. Classic Rock That Rocks; Zelda’s Restaurant, Capitola; Kiva Retreat House, Santa Cruz; Hagashi West Restaurant, Palo Alto; Malibu Grand Prix, Redwood Shores; Bodega Bay Lodge, Bodega Bay; Saturn Café, Santa Cruz; Café Marmalade, Ross; Half Moon Bay Boardshop, Half Moon Bay; Santa Cruz Billiards, Santa Cruz; Café Reyes, Point Reyes Station; Califo Sushi and Grill, San Jose; Santa Clara Golf and Tennis Club, Santa Clara; Ideal Bar and Grill, Santa Cruz; Silver Peso Bar (“Where Janis Played”), Larkspur; Rosie McCann’s Irish Pub and Restaurant, Santa Cruz; Mayfl Inn, San Rafael; Grover Hot Springs State Park, Markleeville; Left Bank Restaurant, Larkspur; Potrero Brewing Company, San Francisco; The Rice Table, San Rafa Ross Valley Swim and Tennis Club, Kentfield; Fallen Leaf Lake Marina, Fallen Leaf Lake; Peer’s Coff and Tea, Greenbrae; Hawthorne Lane Restaurant, San Francisco; Indian Springs Resort, Calistoga; Samurai Sushi, Sausalito; Blowfi Sushi, San Francisco; Paramount’s Great America, Santa Clara; Robata Grill Sushi, Mill Valley; Buckeye Roadhouse, Mill Valley; Barnes and Noble, San Jose; Sushi Ran, Sausalito; 23 Ross Common, Ross; KFOG-104.5 FM; Rutherfo Grill, Rutherfo In-N-Out Burger, Santa Rosa; Seto Sushi, Sunnyvale.

Preface: The Meaning of Life I (Sex, War, Linux)

SETTING: This book has its origins in a late-model black Ford Expedition in the southbound lanes of Interstate 5, somewhere in California Central Valley. Linus and Tove Torvalds and their young daughters, Patricia and Daniela, are accompanied by an interloper as they travel 351 miles to Los Angeles, where they will visit the zoo and an IKEA outlet.

DAVID: Now I’ve got a fundamental question to think about, and it’s sort of important. What do you want to get across in this book?

LINUS: Well, I want to explain the meaning of life.

TOVE: Linus, did you remember to fill the gas tank?

L: I have a theory about the meaning of life. We can, in the first chapter, explain to people what the meaning of life is. We get them hooked that way. Once they’re hooked and pay for the book, we can just fill up the rest with random crap.

D: Oh yes. That sounds like a plan. Someone told me that since the dawn of man there have been two lingering questions.
One:

“What is the meaning of life?”

and
Two:

“What can I do with all this pocket change that accumulates at the end of the day?”

L: I have the answer to the first one.

D:
What’s
the answer to the first one?

L: Basically it is short and sweet. It won’t give your life any meaning, but it tells you what’s going to happen. There are three things that have meaning for life. They are the motivational factors for everything in your life––for anything that you do or any living thing does: The first is survival, the second is social order, and the third is entertainment. Everything in life progresses in that order. And there is nothing after entertainment. So, in a sense, the implication is that the meaning of life is to reach that third stage. And once you’ve reached the third stage, you’re done. But you have to go through the other stages first.

D: You’re going to have to explain this a little more.

PATRICIA: Papa, can we stop for chocolate ice cream? I would like to have some chocolate ice cream now!

T: No, sweetie. You have to wait. When we stop to go potty you can have ice cream.

L: I’ll give you a few examples so you can kind of get the idea. And the obvious one is sex. It started out as survival, but it became a social thing. That’s why you get married. And then it becomes entertainment.

P: Then I have to go potty.

D: How is it entertaining?

L: Okay, I’m talking to the wrong person. How about this one?

D: No, go back to sex.

L: It’s also on another level…

D: (to self): Oh, entertaining to participate in as opposed to watch. Okay, I get it.

L: … On another level, if you look at the illusion of sex in a biological sense––How did sex come about in the first place? It was survival. It wasn’t entertaining initially. It was just getting together. Okay, let’s drop the sex part.

D: No, no. I think this is a whole chapter.

L: Let’s pick war instead. It’s obvious it started as survival,
because there’s a big guy between you and the water hole. Next, you need to fight the guy for a wife. And then war becomes a social-order thing. That’s how it was long before the Middle Ages.