This well-written and only slightly opinionated book documents the history of the free and open-source software (FOSS) movement. It covers the main historical branch from the start of Unix through GNU, Linux, the LAMP stack, Mozilla, Android, Ubuntu, and on through today. The latest citations are from 2016.

Throughout the book, Tozzi addresses the revolution metaphor, repeatedly comparing the FOSS changes to the French, Russian, and American revolutions.

The author is not afraid to express his opinions. For the most part, his claims are accurate and well sourced; however, I did catch a few questionable assertions. To cite two:

On page 68, he attributes Stallman’s frustration, in 1982, to the arrival of a DEC “TWENEX” computer at the MIT AI lab (presumably MIT-OZ), rather than the well-known story of his rift with Symbolics.

On page 83, he states that most FOSS projects use licenses derived from the general public license (GPL).

In each of these cases, as well as all the other places where I disagreed with the author, his sentences are sufficiently vague that it is possible to argue that they are correct. But, in each case, the simplest reading disturbed me and would confuse a less-aware reader.

These problems are few and far between. On the whole, I found the book accurate and well written. In some cases, he offered insights that were new to me and made much sense. For example, he presents good arguments that much of the hacker ethic derives from existing academic culture.

He also has some very interesting and compelling views on the “wars” in the FOSS movement, including the debate between free and open source, and the fights with Microsoft.

In summary, I highly recommend this book. I may not agree with all of Tozzi’s conclusions, but his work is well written and historically sound, with 40 pages of footnotes and bibliography. This book is a welcome addition to the history of computers.