Book Review: Rebel Code

I purchased Rebel Code by Glyn Moody because I was giving a presentation at a local technical conference on the history of open source software. I chose to present this topic because I realized many up-and-coming technical workers and enthusiasts either weren't alive when many milestone events occurred or weren't cognizant of them or their significance.

This book far exceeded my expectations. I was an early adopter of Linux and open source software in the early 1990s, so I was witness to some of the innovations and big events that took place, but I had no idea about the details. Moody's book delves deep into the evolution of the early Linux kernel, how it lacked any networking capability at all, the controversy surrounding adding a network stack to the kernel, and other issues that came up that ultimately shaped Linux, its maintainer Linus Torvalds, and his lieutenants.

While the bulk of Moody's story explores the roots of Linux and its early history, it also explores other relevant open source projects that have made a significant mark such as GNU, Apache, Sendmail, Samba, and BIND. I learned several things about these projects and those involved that I hadn't known before.

Telling the history of the open source movement would not be complete without coverage of the companies that made open source their business or changed their business because of open source. It's disappointing how many of them are gone now, but when this book was published (2002) most were still ticking. Gone now are organizations like Netscape Communications, Caldera, Pacific Hi-Tech, and VA Linux/VA Research, but their roles in the movement can not be forgotten.

The only downside of this book is that Moody hasn't prepared an updated revision in the decade or so since it was published. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, much of the open source movement saw Microsoft as the enemy, the obstacle to the movement's success, and Moody covers this well. In the years since, however, I think the movement has started to recognize that Microsoft is not the roadblock they saw it as. It seems like every year for the last fifteen years, someone has declared it to be "the year of Linux on the desktop," but while Linux has gained more desktop users, it's still nowhere near that kind of a conquest... And that's okay.

In summary, I highly recommend this book as a way of gaining critical insight into the landmark years of the 1990s that defined the open source movement.