I can't give this a star rating. It began excellently, and ended in irrelevant trivia, and farce.

I read this book very much from a personal historical perspective, since I lived the history it recounts and know many of the people in it, either personally or by reputation. (I also happened to be frequently corresponding with one of the people most quoted in it, for unrelated reasons, as I read it.)

So, really I enjoyed the first 100 or so pages of the book, which covered years before I got very involved in this stuff. I'd heard that history before, but this stuck me as a more complete version, taken from closer to the source. That first section kept me reading too late for a few nights.

Then it went downhill, with endless details about company's shenanigans during the dotcom bubble. Was there, don't want to hear it again. The latter half of the book is a snapshot of a particularly deranged moment in time, which has perhaps of historical value, but not personal historical value. In the end I plowed though it only because Goodreads
told me I'd been reading this book for a month.

I will leave you with ... the farce! (From the last page of the book)

«Stallman says despairingly. "I'm going to keep working on the free software movement because I don't see who's going to replace me."
Nevertheless, a worthy successor who has the rare mix of qualities neccessary may already be emerging in the person of Miguel de Icaza.«