Pls see these reviews http://www.amazon.ca/Rebel-Code-Inside-Source-Revolution/dp/customer-reviews...
They give a better idea which i was not able to convey as well. The main point is that it gives ideas about trends and also is a great motivational book. There are so many ideas which tell how things happenned or why they fell in place.
It really inspires one to be good in software. e.g. i remember when I was in engg college in 1991 we couldn't even think of writing an assembler software and here in the book there is this exceptional 19 year old who has a head start in programming and thinking of emulating an OS and that too Unix. Even now most of us cannot write or even think of designing systems software like compilers/assemblers/OS etc. There is a huge difference in quality among majority of our engineers and the normal engineers/technicians there. (when I read joelonsoftware.com --though its microsoft oriented, i feel we hardly know as much as these top chaps know) (also we are bogged down in a few open source projects like fonts development etc which hardly should have taken more than an year or two-- if there are more good indian led projects why can't a list be maintained for them like sourceforge.net)
There is also a huge difference in quality and mindset between what type of so called engineers are being produced from our educational machine as compared to the western education system. There those people don't think of themselves as engineers till they get out of 6 to 8 year courses (no time limit is fixed unlike the people who pass out here after their 3 or 4 year courses and still don't know much) and in between drop out or take totally different subjects e.g. Larry Wall's career is not typical computer science subjects at all. Thats why he was so innovative and PERL was produced. Linus Torvalds stayed in college/university for 7/8 years, some of these bright chaps completed Btech and then Mtech next year or same year --there are so many options for training, research and development there --where we don't even come close.
when i see such sites as http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/ee476/FinalProjects/ I am amazed. See the difference in quality between what their final year students produce and whats produced here (where most things are copied and students don't have any idea what to do till the term has already started)
Then it was also quite interesting to read that Linus could lead so well the OS kernel work maybe as a result of the 1 year compulsory army officer training that he opted for during university days. We have nothing like that here.(not many Indian geeks want to build a sound body to cope with the pressure of working on computers and not many people understand what its like to have compulsory army training) He keeps things in his head --photographic memory and so on (thinking on one's feet, the maturity in tackling conflicts or not giving offense, developing leaders under him automatically etc etc).
Difference between system of working with linux development as compared to emacs forking development etc etc-- so many management aspects are also revealed in the book --it can be read a few times just to understand and learn from such history.
I think its a great book and can really really inspire new people to think ambitiously.
Our drawbacks-- we have no authentic idea about the number of indian open source programmers/developers and whether there is an increase/decrease or constant number since nobody measures and nowhere in any open source project do we see names of Indians mentioned much. There should be some annual survey in some authentic Indian publication and highlighting of role models and good personality traits so that people understand what made open source/free software succeed. Spanish speakers/non english speakers ask more questions in forums than Indians and that shows places like Brazil,Mexico, Italy, East Europe, japan, korea etc are more active and increasing in development/computer literacy
then in college we don't share or innovate code but compete unhealthily against each other --this is typical indian crab mentality --teachers do not see this aspect and cannot think of ways to reduce this mentality --only highlighting positive traits/ publicly praising healthy competition/sharing/giving/good leadership etc etc and publicising good indian/foreign role models can change this negative crab mentality.
We even don't learn how humility has played such a great part in the open source movement--witness what one top hacker told how linus himself is and was so humble and encouraging which motivated all those around him. Or the great traits of Richard Stallman and so on and so forth. Our nerds think its infra dig to help somebody else --specially if they don't know computers or don't know as much as them. They think that is macho. They have never been told that --knowledge increases the more you use it or give/share it. Also knowledge is one thing no thief can steal from you (even if they succeed in the short term --your peers will eventually find out and time will compensate you unless you brood on that one negative thing for ever.)
There is nothing like our abominable ragging in the west --people will sue the institution and the authorities if that happens there because their justice system works. A simple thing such as highlighting local political godfathers in an institution or state from a different/outside publication can keep such things in check. By outside publication, I mean say if an institution in Bihar has a lot of political interference (political godfathers who control student union/elections/council etc) have a report published in a publication outside Bihar or on the web --make the issue transparent and the politician will have to hide/duck for cover and all this nonsense will reduce. We have something like indiavotes.org /mumbaivotes.org now coming up which is asking educated people to understand and take part in higher governance so that quality of leadership improves. A great book is here http://www.vcn.bc.ca/citizens-handbook/ since good men should not be aloof from society. Einstein etc could motivate society because they were accessible and participative. Indian scientists/researchers/hackers must contribute to society by participating in the community too.
Kush