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ISBN-13: 978-0-7382-0670-7
ISBN-10: 0-7382-0670-9
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R E B E L C O D E
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R E B E L C O D E
[The Inside Story of Linux and
the Open Source Revolution]
G L Y N M O O D Y
AMember of the Perseus Books Group
New York
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To My Family
Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are
claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and Basic Books was aware of
a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in initial capital letters.
Copyright © 2001, 2002 by Glyn Moody
Published by Basic Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group
Previously published by Perseus Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other-
wise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.
A CIPcatalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 0-7382-0670-9
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Books published by Basic Books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S. by
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call (617) 252-5298.
Text design by Jeffrey P. Williams
Set in 11-point Berkeley by The Perseus Books Group
First paperback printing, May 2002
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CONTENTS
Note to the Paperback Edition vii
Acknowledgments ix
Prologue 1
1
The Coolest Year 5
2
The New GNU Thing 13
3
A Minor Rebellion 31
4
Factor X 55
5
Patching Up 71
6
Root then Boot 87
7
Linus 2.0 106
8
Learning from Berkeley 120
9
The Art of Code 140
10
Low-Down in the Valley 162
11
Mozilla Dot Party 182
12
A Foothold 205
13
Distributions and Shares 220
14
Open for Business 237
15
Trolls Versus Gnomes 252
16
Lies, Damned Lies, and Benchmarks 269
17
Tomorrow’s Hothouse 289
18
Beyond the Market 305
Afterword 324
Index 332
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NOTE TO THE
PAPERBACK EDITION
Any book that deals with a fast-moving subject like free software is
doomed to be out of date the moment it appears. But as the first edition
of Rebel Code went to press at the end of 2000, the world of open source
was changing even more rapidly and dramatically than usual. The dot-
com boom years were coming to an end, and the market conditions that
had allowed open source companies to prosper so spectacularly were dis-
appearing.
The late 1990s were an exciting time for the free software world, and,
despite the subsequent financial turmoil, their deeper achievements have
proved enduring. Rather than rewrite the history of that period to take
account of the later economic downturn, I have chosen to leave the main
text of Rebel Code largely unchanged to reflect an important moment in
computing history. I have, however, added a short Afterword that at-
tempts to place those events in a broader context.
Glyn Moody
June 2002
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Unless otherwise noted, the vast majority of quotations in this book are
drawn from interviews conducted between September 1999 and Septem-
ber 2000 in person, by telephone, or by e-mail. These have been supple-
mented by extensive material taken from an interview with Linus
Torvalds at a critical juncture in his life, in December 1996, as well as
other interviews with key players from the last three years.
I am particularly grateful to all these people, who somehow managed
to take time from their important work and hectic schedules to talk to
me, often at great length. My only regret is that because of space con-
straints I was not able to introduce more of their memories, thoughts,
and comments.
Despite this generous help, I am conscious that there will be mistakes
and omissions in this book, for which I alone am responsible. I would be
happy to receive corrections as well as general comments on the text at
[email protected].
The 1996 interview with Linus Torvalds was carried out for a feature
commissioned by Sean Geer, editor of the UK edition of Wiredmagazine.
The feature eventually appeared as “The Greatest OS That (N)ever Was”
in the August 1997 issue of the U.S. edition of Wired, where it was shep-
herded through by Jim Daly, a features editor at the time. Jim kindly sug-
gested my name to Jacqueline Murphy of Perseus Books when, in 1999,
she was looking for someone to write a book about GNU/Linux and
open source. My thanks go to him, and even more to Jacqueline, my edi-
tor, who not only followed up the suggestion but also persuaded me that
I should undertake this project. I am also grateful to Jacqueline’s assis-
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