Just for Fun

A few minutes ago, I just finished reading Just for Fun, it's an (auto) biographical account of Linus Torvalds' life.

I didn't even think about reading Just for Fun, until a good friend told me it was actually fun to read, and one day I finally ordered the book at bol.

Throughout the book the chapters alternate in perspective, most chapters are auto biographical and basically written by Linus himself. Irregularly intersperced between those chapters are the biographical chapters written by David Diamond.

I generally enjoyed reading Linus' chapters better, probably because they carry a distinct geek way of saying things. The chapters written by David Diamond were probably intended to give Linus' life a bit more depth, but his effort is mostly undermined by Linus' confessing what a big geek he really is.

Most of the book is excellent bedtime reading, and doesn't really require all that much attention from the reader. The chapter on Intellectual Property does require a bit of attention, and Linus really succeeds in expressing his two faced opinion.
I mostly agree with Linus that Copyright laws are not bad by themselves, but they suffer from perversion by greed. Patents and Trade-Secrets are a Bad Thing(tm) no matter which way you look at them.

I can recommend Just for Fun to anybody considering themselves to be somewhat geeky.