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The Cathedral & the Bazaar (paperback)

The Cathedral & the Bazaar (paperback)

List Price: $16.95
Your Price: $11.53
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Is it time for Linux ?
Review:
This books starts off with a very good history of the development of the Linux operating software. This open source development process started the author thinking about the two software development methods, the Cathedral method, where a large corporate structure hires programmers to develop software, keeps the source code secret, and charges large amounts to recoup it costs, not from the original product development, but from the expected legacy problems, technical support, bug fixing, software updates, etc. On the other hand the bazaar method, encourages open source software. Open source software encourages a programmer or group within the hacker community to gain ascendancy, to possess and maintain and steer the software to keep it relevant. The Author's point is that with most business models in the future the Cathedral method (read Microsoft) will not be able to compete with the Bazaar method (read Linux). In the Cathedral method the programmers must be hired, the bazaar method the hackers are attracted to a problem, become more dedicated, revisions and bugs are handled at internet speed. The author tells of many real-life business experiences companies have had adopting the open source method. The middle of the book explains the hacker ethic and how the hacker community operates. The reader learns the true meaning of "hacker" v.s. "cracker" and the true meaning of free software. The author predicts that open source software will make deep in-roads into the Fortune-500 companies. That their investments in hardware and records may be dependent on one software company's decision to continue supporting that software revision is the problem. Open source software would provide a proliferation of hacker communities willing to constantly update older software. The author appears to know his stuff and progressively throughout the book the author lets it leak out that he is one of the hacker community and is a player/spokesman in this software battle I found this book a real eye-opener, can Microsoft's workforce continue to support software like Windows 2000 with 60 million lines of code, as opposed to Linux taking advantage of a worldwide army of hackers reporting bugs, writing patches, and keeping hardware drivers updated. Time will tell.
This book was enough to prompt this reader to obtain a copy of Linux just in case..



Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Almost makes me want to convert to Open Source Linux
Review: After reading this eloquent manefesto of the Open Source movement, it almost pursuaded me to convert to Linux. Mr. Raymond's arguments and his vision of software engineering has sent shockwaves through the industry. Just look what his evangelism has done for Red Hat and VALinux. I would compare this to Guy Kawasaki's evangelism of the Mac, the message is made more powerful by the speaker.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fascinating Look at the "Open-Source" Phenemonon
Review: Almost a year ago, I was at an informal "computer user" gathering and was given a copy of Eric Raymond's essay, "The Cathedral and the Bazaar." Even though the gathering was poorly attended and broke up early, I stayed and read through the essay. I was fascinated by it and its description of a succesful "open-source" product, and the idea of "giving away" the source code of a computer prodict that others could read and improve on.

When I found out about this book much more recently (a series of other essays by Raymond describing the "effects" of open source on the computer industry), I knew I had to get a copy. I was not disappointed by any of the essays Raymond writes in this book. In fact, I found myself intrigued as I found out more about the world of "hackers" (as opposed to "crackers," who seem only to be very destructive types that are always confused with hackers), their "code of ethics, rules and society," and the recent, current, and potentially future effect open-source has and will have in the computer industry. Speaking of hackers, Raymond even offers advice on becoming a hacker, in one of the appendixes of the book!

Raymond's uses of analogies throughout his essays bring home key points. One great example of course is his use of the teams "cathedral" and "bazaar" in the title essay in the book to describe the concept of designing an open-source program as opposed to not making the code free for anyone to view. A great example of course of an open source product is the Linux operating system, which seems to slowly be gaining in use among PC owners. The more I hear about it, the more I'm thinking of installing it on my PC!

If you want to get a great idea about what "open source" is really about and how it got and continues to become more popular, this book is well worth buying and reading.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best way to understand open source software and business
Review: Eric captures the essense of the sociology of open source software development, along with the business implications of open source software.

It is the best I've seen to date to understand the substance behind the Linux and other open source software (bind, sendmail, apache, etc.) that is changing the computer industry.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Dynamite!
Review: Eric Raymond is not only a brilliant thinker, he's also a damn fine writer -- and one of the more interesting human beings I've had the good fortune to encounter. This is his core stuff. Not to be missed by anyone with an interest in the future of the computer industry.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Anthropology of Hackerdom
Review: Eric Raymond is the Margaret Mead of the Open Source movement. His analysis of the gift culture as a model for explaining why hackers write software without recieving direct financial compensation is original, and as far as I know, unique. The economic implications are vast: if programmers write programs as a hobby, and do not stand in need of income for doing so (assume that they have day jobs), with rewards being in the form of status and reputation, then why buy the equivalent of what they're giving away?
Linux is the focus of this branch of the hacker-programming movement, which can also be seen at work in Apache and Java. The nature of the movement - everyone agreeing to play by Open Source rules, a leader (Linus Torvalds) who sets goals but does not exert formal authority, and a market (the Bazaar) where knowledge is dispersed throughout, reminds one of the Austrian Economists, who believed that a system operating as a spontaneous order would show greater productivity than a command economy, because of the exponentially greater amount of brain power in use. Raymond makes much the same point, when he argues that, "With enough eyes, all bugs are shallow."
For Microsoft, this is a deadly threat. Proprietary software and operating systems are expensive, to develop and to buy. If Open Source products are seen as being of like kind and quality, them software becomes a commodity, and branded, proprietary products, and the businesses that sell them, are facing inevitible decline in their core market.
If Raymond's thesis is correct (I believe, as a layman, that it is), then by 2010, Windows may have gone the way of the British Empire - living in memore (digital or otherwise) only.
-LLoyd A. Conway

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Anthropology of Hackerdom
Review: Eric Raymond is the Margaret Mead of the Open Source movement. His analysis of the gift culture as a model for explaining why hackers write software without recieving direct financial compensation is original, and as far as I know, unique. The economic implications are vast: if programmers write programs as a hobby, and do not stand in need of income for doing so (assume that they have day jobs), with rewards being in the form of status and reputation, then why buy the equivalent of what they're giving away?
Linux is the focus of this branch of the hacker-programming movement, which can also be seen at work in Apache and Java. The nature of the movement - everyone agreeing to play by Open Source rules, a leader (Linus Torvalds) who sets goals but does not exert formal authority, and a market (the Bazaar) where knowledge is dispersed throughout, reminds one of the Austrian Economists, who believed that a system operating as a spontaneous order would show greater productivity than a command economy, because of the exponentially greater amount of brain power in use. Raymond makes much the same point, when he argues that, "With enough eyes, all bugs are shallow."
For Microsoft, this is a deadly threat. Proprietary software and operating systems are expensive, to develop and to buy. If Open Source products are seen as being of like kind and quality, them software becomes a commodity, and branded, proprietary products, and the businesses that sell them, are facing inevitible decline in their core market.
If Raymond's thesis is correct (I believe, as a layman, that it is), then by 2010, Windows may have gone the way of the British Empire - living in memore (digital or otherwise) only.
-LLoyd A. Conway

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A must for System Adminstrators and Internet businesses
Review: Eric S. Raymond basically puts on paper what most Open Source developers have been thinking. ALso presents strong arguments why Open Source products are really the only viable 24/7 reliablity applications. A must read for Sys Admins, and Internet Professionals

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent
Review: Eric S. Raymond is one of the major players of the open source community; he lives and breathes open source. His essay "The Cathredal and the Bazaar" is required reading for anybody who wants to understand the open source movement. I highly recommend this book. 5 stars

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A classic.
Review: Eric Scott Raymond is described as "An Accidental Revolutionary," as he took a leading role in analyzing and documenting the changes and growth of the Open Source (or "Free Software") movement that he, as a programmer, is part of. He's one of the "famous" people in hacker culture.

This collection of essays by ESR gives the reader a glimpse into the world of Hackers (good programmers, not to be confused with people who break into computers, those are "crackers"). He goes into how and why it works, what the pros and cons of open source vs. closed source software is, and predicts where things will go in the future.

Because this book is separated into individual essays that he has written, it's easy just to go through and read what you want. But to any person who is playing a part, or who wants to play a part in the hacker world, the whole thing is a must read. It gives you a lot to think about when it comes to the open source world, and builds up a great respect and understanding of the people pioneering it.


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