Fantastic! From start to finish this book will have you hooked.

With a humble 171 pages, this thin red and black book belies the wealth of insider information contained within. You know that saying, 'a page-turner'? Well this book is that. So thrilling it reads like fiction, like a fantastic piece of fiction. And what's more it contains no techie talk. Gurus, newbies, business people, I guarantee you will all love this book. How could you not. This book details how Linux - a hacker's operating system - is turning a trillion dollar industry on its head. And all this from Robert Young, the CEO of Red Hat and Wendy Goldman Rohm an award-winning investigative journalist, and author of the book The Microsoft File: The Secret Case Against Bill Gates.

But enough of this undying praise, what's covered in the book?

It's difficult to describe since so many things are covered. It might sound like a cop-out, or a sales-pitch, but you really need to read the book yourself to fully take in the big picture. Everything mentioned in this book, I knew already. But it's the way it's all pieced so perfectly together, and with extra detail, that make it so special.

The book begins by detailing Red Hat's struggle to get funding, and Intel's panic to get a piece of the Linux action. Specifically a piece of the Red Hat action. With Frank Batten Jr., Benchmark, Greylock, Netscape, and Intel behind them, Red Hat move onto expanding; to be taken more seriously.

In what Robert Young calls their C [investment] round, the book details in vivid colour, why giants like Dell, IBM, and Compaq backed them. And not without problems I might add.

Interspersed amongst all this lively business talk, Robert Young preaches a sincere message of why open source software is so important, why Red Hat are 100% behind open source (and always will be), the birth and evolution of open source, and how it will dramatically improve the future of computer technology. At last, as he says: the software will be able to keep up with the hardware. This; investor's contempt for Microsoft's downright criminal activities; the rising popularity of Linux; and of course the obvious financial rewards, are the reasons for companies investing in Red Hat (and culminate into being the central theme of this book).

From here we move onto two chapters dedicated to Netscape's monumental move to release the source code to Communicator 5.0 with a great behind-the-scenes look at why this took place, and the problems Netscape faced making sure they went about it all in the correct manner.

Next it's on to a chapter going by the title, 'Gods And Apostles'; focusing on humorous accounts of Richard Stallman and Linus.

If I may quote one particular excerpt that made me smile:

In May 1998, Torvalds took the stage at Linux Expo in Raleigh, North Carolina, close to Red Hat's office. He was giving the keynote address to a packed auditorium that normally held about 2,000 people. Red Hat's Paul McNamara had arrived to meet Torvalds for the first time. There was standing-room only and electricity was in the air.

An excited crowd edged toward the bare stage where spotlights shone on a podium. It was as if Mick Jagger were about to perform. When Torvalds entered the auditorium, a hush fell over the crowd.

He stood before the microphone and leaned over slightly. Suddenly the silence was broken. "My name is Linus Torvalds and I am your god," Torvalds joked. Pandemonium. The place went wild, with flashbulbs flashing and people cheering.

"I don't know if anyone else could have pulled off that line," McNamara said. "You get the sense he's a guy who has his ego very much in control."

Picture an entire book crammed with magical material like this, and you have the genius that is 'under the radar'.

All this and I've only briefly described the main topics covered in the first two thirds of the book. And what a book it is.