wayner.org

Free for All is now free, at least in electronic form as a PDF (1.2meg), zipped HTML or Palm PDB. (The first thanks to folks at HarperCollins and the last two thanks to Shane Bishop. Dan Pidcock helped modify the original PDF to improve its readability online. Thanks! The version sent to the printers oh so many years ago is still here.)

Free for All is no longer free from Apple's AppStore on the iPhone and iPod Touch . Why? Apple insists that I pay $100 to keep any apps active. It's just not worth it for something free.

So you can just go here and read it from the website.

You can also get copies from the SiSU archive in their HTML-based format , ASCII text or XML . Thanks to Ralph Amissah for the work.

The electronic version is now covered by the Creative Common's license permitting non-commerical distribution of complete copies. (To be specific: Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial License)

If you want to read paper versions, you can buy a hardcover copy here from the author or find a used one from Amazon.

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Read this story of how a loose-knit group of programmers, dreamers, philosophers, geniuses and fools discovered the fact that that they could write better software in less time by just giving it all away. Follow the ecstasy, the triumphs, the battles, the failures, the treachery, the cooperation, the wrong turns, the teamwork, the struggles, and the backbiting on the road to triumph and total global domination.

"an entertaining, unabashedly partisan chronicle of the movement"--- the New Yorker.

"this is a story told with gusto..."--Kirkus Reviews

"Free for All offers as thorough and engaging an account of the open-source movement--and the pitfalls in its path--as readers are likely to find anywhere."-- Damien MacClean for Amazon.com.

``Wayner himself is an open source proponent, and at one point he waxes philosophical about wealth and freedom, capturing the essence of the free software movement."--David Rouse, Booklist