A narrative history of Linux and the open source revolution by technology journalist Glyn Moody, published in 2001. Based on more than 50 interviews with key figures, it is a journalistic account rather than an academic study. Brief entry — also documented in the Stallman KB.
What the Source Contributes
"Rebel Code" provides narrative continuity across the gnu-and-free-software-1983-1997 and open-source-schism-and-dotcom-1998-2004 eras that movement-internal texts (written by participants in the midst of events) cannot provide. Moody had access to key figures during the period and reconstructed the human story behind the technical and political developments.
The book is particularly valuable for the linux-kernel-release-1991 through the mid-1990s period — the years when Linux grew from a hobby project to serious infrastructure, before the ecosystem's history was heavily mythologized. Moody's interviews with linus-torvalds and others capture a period when participants did not yet know they were making history.
The book is less useful for analysis than for chronology and texture. Moody is sympathetic to his subjects and does not press hard on tensions or contradictions. It should be read alongside Weber's success-of-open-source-weber-2004 for analytical framing and revolution-os-2001 for the documentary record of the same period. The free-as-in-freedom-williams biography provides complementary depth on richard-stallman's specific trajectory.