Rating: 
Summary: Bazaar...is "bizaar" : worth skimming, but not by much
Review: Other reviewers have pointed out that this is more analysis and less manifesto, but that doesn't make it great.At best, this book is a useful introduction to open source community dynamics. At worst, it's a bunch of well-typeset pseudo-science horse manure. Raymond does a decent job of putting together logically cohesive arguments in favor of his point, but he's so obviously and inextricably biased, that it's hard to accept these arguments with any of the scientfic merit that he seems to believe they deserve. I mean, come on, an anthropological and psychological analysis of why projects don't fork often? Really, it's a bit out there. The book is a frozen-in-print form of Raymond's evolving online essays on Open Source. I bet you could get them for free on the web, and at that price, they'd be worth reading for sure. The theories presented here are somewhat intriguing, but should not be taken as the gospel, despite the religious invocation of the word "cathedral." Change Bazaar to bizaar and the title becomes more accurate.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book !
Review: Raymond does a very good job of explaining the pros of the open source model. His work is a little weak in explaining the other side. In the essay "The Magic Cauldron" He asks what are the payoffs ? He does only a moderate job of portraying the strengths of the closed source approach.
Having read "The hiistory of the Internet" several times I thought that the chapter "A breif History of Hackerdo" would be a yawn fest but it was very interesting. I would still disagree with many of the conclusions Raymond draws, especially about the economics and business case of open source but I found his analyisis of the motivations of hackers very interesting. In all I liked the work very much.
The work is very well written and well thought out. It gives the strengths of the open source approach very well. It also gives a lot of insights into "Hackerdom" and "Hackers"
If you are interested in a book on Open SOurce This is a very good read.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretentious and Shallow
Review: Raymond's standard talk begins with references to himself as an ordinary but experienced IT guy of sorts who, without any sort of formal training in sociology, psychology, marketing, business, or the like, has become the chronicler of the "gnu generation" (not his quote, just a common one) and predictor of open source things to be. Then, he drones on for an hour or two about sociology, psychology, marketing, business, and the like. I've seen him give this talk in front of academics. Thankfully, he has little shame, or he'd have dropped dead long ago from the subtle looks and snickers that inevitably result from his bombast. My point here is not to bash the earnest-but-misguided ESR. It's rather to warn you, the lay reader--this guy may have attained some sort of status in the open source community which needs such figures, but it doesn't mean that what he has to say is any good or even true. In his works (including "Cathedral"), Eric makes a very one-sided analysis of software engineering methodologies. It's a complete ra-ra piece which fails to seriously address the very many shortcomings of open-source development, including, most critically, the inability to scale timewise as well as commercial software (while not under the GNU licence, two years ago Raymond was predicting the success of the open-source Mozilla browser initiative, which is at this point a complete fiasco). Instead, he talks about obscure supporting sociological constructs such as that of "gift cultures" that would only convince the already converted. The whole "cracker/hacker" distinction is (and I say this as a 14 year IT professional, and linux user / kernel hacker and administrator since 1995) jargony and ultimately unimportant compared to the larger issues: What people should be getting out of this book (or a book like this) is a balanced, informed view of open source vs commercial software, undertaken with sound research on various cost/effectiveness metrics and some case studies. What we have here is a bible for a community that desperately needs one, because, as Eric's whole thrust implies, it is largely ego driven.
Rating: 
Summary: Essential book for anyone interested in Free / Open-Source
Review: Simply put, this should be required reading for anyone interested in Free / Open-Source Software. In fact, I'd go on to say that it should be required reading by the second year of any Computer Science curriculum. Even if you have no intentions of developing (i.e. you're a development manager) or of diverging from the corporate cathedral way of making software, you should at least undertand alterative approaches so that you can identify the benefits and limitations of each. On the other hand, if you're interested in not only understanding Free/OSS but also in participating in it, read this, then "The Unix Philosophy" and then "Open Source Development with CVS". C'mon in and join the fun!
Rating:
Summary: Lazy journalism
Review: The author proposes some interesting ideas. However it's difficult to evaluate them, because he simply makes claims and doesn't bother to back up his ideas with research and evidence. Most first-year college students can write better than this.
Rating:
Summary: More analysis than manifesto, and better for it
Review: The cult-like status of this book and its Web antecedents in the Linux community isn't surprising. But even for those of us who aren't staunch open-source partisans, it's a surprisingly well-argued (if a bit scattered) and concise collection. Taken as a whole, the book makes a series of good business cases for when opening the source code to software is appropriate and potentially profitable -- as well as maximally efficient. I was pleased that Raymond acknowledges that open source is _not_ always the best way to go, even while noting that it will probably be more prevalent over time. Raymond's fervour about open source shows through, particularly late in the book, but it doesn't detract from the largely objective analyses he makes -- so his arguments carry force. Worth reading for anyone who's a programmer, a hacker, or interested in the politics of the software business. Or anyone else, for that matter.
Rating:
Summary: OSS Business Model
Review: The major problem with this book is that ER NEVER really
discusses the "business model" used by the "software" industry
which is more of a form racketeering and money laundering
than any legitimate model. Since he does not do this and
does not offer a viable alternative business model - he
doomed open source to a quick death. Had he taken this
issue more seriously,Enron,WorldCom,Auther Andersen and Perigrine
debacles might have been avoided.
Rating:
Summary: Absolute Gold. A Book All Should Read
Review: The methods for development detailed within this book extend far beyond software development. Dealing strictly with software development, though, this book does an excellent job discussing open source and closed source software, as well as motivations for open source projects and tidbits on hackerdom. Having met Eric Raymond myself, I know his works are genuine and powerful. The material in this book is what caused Netscape to open source their Web browser. Anybody who questions the ideals and motives of open source and wishes to learn more about this increasingly popular software production model should read this book. That being said, buy it!
Rating:
Summary: Important but misguided book
Review: The Open Source movement had done for Computer Science what Creationism tried to to to the field of Biology. A political mass movement that has turned many in the field against the computer industry. For academics, this dogmatic illogical movement is nevertheless appealing, because it offers an opportunity to situate intellectuals and "hackers" into a false position of importance in the history and evolution of the computer industry.
Rating:
Summary: Important but misguided book
Review: The Open Source movement had done for Computer Science what Creationism tried to to to the field of Biology. A political mass movement that has turned many in the field against the computer industry. For academics, this dogmatic illogical movement is nevertheless appealing, because it offers an opportunity to situate intellectuals and "hackers" into a false position of importance in the history and evolution of the computer industry.
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