书名：Just for Fun 只是为了好玩：Linux之父林纳斯自传
作者：Linus Torvalds林纳斯·托瓦兹；David Diamond大卫·戴蒙
出版社名称：Collins Business
出版时间：2002
语种：英文 
ISBN：9780066620732
商品尺寸：13.5 x 1.7 x 20.3 cm
包装：平装
页数：288

当我们使用Google搜索，使用Kindle阅读，使用淘宝购物，使用QQ聊天时，很多人并不知道，支撑这些软件和服务的，是后台成千上万台Linux服务器。可以这么说，世界上大部分软件和服务都运行在Linux操作系统之上，让数十亿人受益，而它的缔造者却低调得只有程序员才知道。

2001年林纳斯（Linus）与人合著了他的自传，也是首本关于他的传记。这部自传风趣幽默，充满极客风格，探寻如何以“一切为了好玩”的态度对待技术、软件和人生，向读者展示了林纳斯如何用自己精彩的编程人生和对自由软件的热爱，演绎现代社会中一个书呆子的胜利。

媒体评论：
“一些人生来就注定能领导几百万人，一些人生来就注定能写出可颠覆世界的软件。但只有一个人两样都能做到，他就是托瓦兹。”——《时代周刊》

“此书非常有趣，一点儿不枯燥，充满了各种好玩的笑料，以及对技术和软件的严肃思考。如果你是一名程序员，我向你推荐此书。”——阮一峰，知名博主，著有《如何变得有思想》

“目前几乎整个互联网都是运行在Linux及其衍生产品之上的，可以说没有Linux，互联网不可能得到如此迅猛的发展。林纳斯用自己精彩的编程人生和对自由软件的热爱演绎了现代社会中一个书呆子的胜利。”——池建强，瑞友科技IT应用研究院副院长，著有《MacTalk·人生元编程》

“如果技术都商业化，今天赚钱的IT公司不是Google和苹果，可能会是Linux。如果Java在普及后收费，可能是Sun反过来收购Oracle。如果C语言收费，那完全不敢想。但是，像Linux、Java、C这样的免费的东西，却创造了比商业公司更大的价值。所以，成功并不单是挣钱，而是创造价值。”——陈皓（@左耳朵耗子），酷壳coolshell.cn博主，阿里巴巴核心系统专家组资深专家

“写得十分有趣，让读者豁然开朗，原来一个创造性开发者的脑子是这样运转的。”——《新闻周刊》

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.

Review
“It’s an entertaining work...breezy, colloquial... the reader will find insights into how the mind of a creative computer developer works.” — Newsweek

“Linus Torvalds is a lot like Bill Gates...both are about the same height.”  —USA Today

“Linus is the benevolent dictator the whole community trusts.”  — Larry Augustin, President of VA Research

“Perhaps the most entertaining business book you’ll read this year.” —eCompany

“Software is like sex: it’s better when it’s free.”  —Linus Torvalds

“Some people are born to lead millions. Others are born to write world-changing software. Only one person does both: Torvalds.”  — Time Magazine/Time Inc.

Just for Fun《只是为了好玩》是Linux之父林纳斯·托瓦兹的自传，内容不只包括他的成长经历、Linux系统的诞生过程、与之相关的争议，还有他本人对于版权、开源、商业软件等的看法以及对生活意义的思考。本书语言幽默活泼，读来生动有趣且发人深思，适合所有人，尤其是对Linux感兴趣的读者阅读。

林纳斯·托瓦兹，生于芬兰，毕业于赫尔辛基大学，与妻子和三个女儿居住在加州圣荷西。现任职于Linux基金会。他发起了Linux内核的开源项目，并以此广为人知，是当今世界著名的电脑程序员、黑客之一。他还发起了Git这个开源项目，并为主要的开发者。2004年，他被《时代周刊》评为世界有影响力的人之一。
Linus Torvaldswas born in Finland. He graduated from the University of Helsinki and lives with his wife, the six-time karate champion of Finland, and his children. Linus currently works as a programmer on several projects for Transmeta.

大卫·戴蒙，曾为《纽约时报》《连线》《美国周末》及许多其他刊物供过稿，现与妻子和女儿住在加州肯特菲尔德。

I was an ugly child.
What can I say? I hope some day Hollywood makes a film about Linux, and they’ll be sure to cast somebody who looks like Tom Cruise in the lead role—but in the non-Hollywood version, things don’t work out that way.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not as if I looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Envision instead large front teeth, so that anybody seeing a picture of me in my younger years gets a slightly beaverish impression. Imagine also a complete lack of taste in clothes, coupled with the traditional oversized Torvalds nose, and the picture starts to complete in your mind.
The nose, I’m sometimes told, is “stately. And people—well, at least in our family—say that the size of a man’s nose is indicative of other things, too. But tell that to a boy in his teens, and he won’t much care. To him, the nose only serves to overshadow the teeth. The picture of the profiles of three generations of Torvalds men is just a painful reminder that yes, there is more noise than man there. Or so it seems at the time.
Now, to add to the picture, start filling in the details. Brown hair (what here in the United States is called blond, but in Scandinavia is just brown”), blue eyes, and a slight shortsightedness that makes wearing glasses a good idea. And, as wearing them possibly takes attention away from the nose, wear them I do. All the time.
Oh, and I already mentioned the atrocious taste in clothes. Blue is the color of choice, so that usually means blue jeans with a blue turtleneck. Or maybe turquoise. Whatever. Happily, our
ily wasn’t very much into photography. That way there’s less incriminating evidence.
There are a few photographs. In one of them I’m around thirteen years old, posing with my sister Sara, who is sixteen months younger. She looks fine. But I’m a gangly vision, a skinny pale kid contorting for the photographer, who was probably my mother. She most likely snapped the little gem on her way our door to her as an editor at the Finnish News Agency.
Being born at the very end of the year, on the 28th of December, meant that I was pretty much the youngest in my class at school. And that in turn meant the smallest. Later on, being half a year younger than most of your classmates doesn’t matter. But it certainly does during the first few years of school.