I saw Neal Stephenson at a book signing for Cryptonomicon. Frankly, he wasn't really the friendliest guy nor did he exude much hackerish spirit. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt because it was one of the last stops on a pretty long tour. He did write that long essay about Open Source and Linux so he _does_ 'get it'.
Appearing with him was Bruce Schneier (of Counterpane fame) who also discussed the Cryptonomicon appendix about encryption; he seemed like a really nice, uber-hacker kinda guy. If you're interested in security, etc. I say get Bruce!
I haven't read the book but I don't think you're being fair to the authors. Looking backwards and "making up something" that explains your observations is a good two thirds of the scientific process. Even if they are wrong, it is a good thing to try to understand reasons why Linux was able to emerge.
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Appearing with him was Bruce Schneier (of Counterpane fame) who also discussed the Cryptonomicon appendix about encryption; he seemed like a really nice, uber-hacker kinda guy. If you're interested in security, etc. I say get Bruce!
I haven't read the book but I don't think you're being fair to the authors. Looking backwards and "making up something" that explains your observations is a good two thirds of the scientific process. Even if they are wrong, it is a good thing to try to understand reasons why Linux was able to emerge.