The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary | 
 enlarge | Author: Eric S. Raymond
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  48 reviews
Sales Rank: 37463
Media: Paperback
Edition: Revised & Expanded ed.
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 241
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0596001088
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.432
UPC: 636920001089
EAN: 9780596001087
ASIN: 0596001088
Publication Date: January 15, 2001
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
It may be foolish to consider Eric Raymond's recent collection of essays, The Cathedral and the Bazaar, the most important computer programming thinking to follow the Internet revolution. But it would be more unfortunate to overlook the implications and long-term benefits of his fastidious description of open-source software development considering the growing dependence businesses and economies have on emerging computer technologies. The Cathedral and the Bazaar takes its title from an essay Raymond read at the 1997 Linux Kongress. The essay documents Raymond's acquisition, re-creation, and numerous revisions of an e-mail utility known as fetchmail. Raymond engagingly narrates the fetchmail development process while elaborating on the ongoing bazaar development method he uses with the help of volunteer programmers. The essay smartly spares the reader from the technical morass that could easily detract from the text's goal of demonstrating the efficacy of the open-source, or bazaar, method in creating robust, usable software. Once Raymond has established the components and players necessary for an optimally running open-source model, he sets out to counter the conventional wisdom of private, closed-source software development. Like superbly written code, the author's arguments systematically anticipate their rebuttals. For programmers who "worry that the transition to open source will abolish or devalue their jobs," Raymond adeptly and factually counters that "most developer's salaries don't depend on software sale value." Raymond's uncanny ability to convince is as unrestrained as his capacity for extrapolating upon the promise of open-source development. In addition to outlining the open-source methodology and its benefits, Raymond also sets out to salvage the hacker moniker from the nefarious connotations typically associated with it in his essay, "A Brief History of Hackerdom" (not surprisingly, he is also the compiler of The New Hacker's Dictionary). Recasting hackerdom in a more positive light may be a heroic undertaking in itself, but considering the Herculean efforts and perfectionist motivations of Raymond and his fellow open-source developers, that light will shine brightly. --Ryan Kuykendall
Product Description
Open source provides the competitive advantage in the Internet Age. According to the August Forrester Report, 56 percent of IT managers interviewed at Global 2,500 companies are already using some type of open source software in their infrastructure and another 6 percent will install it in the next two years. This revolutionary model for collaborative software development is being embraced and studied by many of the biggest players in the high-tech industry, from Sun Microsystems to IBM to Intel. The Cathedral & the Bazaar is a must for anyone who cares about the future of the computer industry or the dynamics of the information economy. Already, billions of dollars have been made and lost based on the ideas in this book. Its conclusions will be studied, debated, and implemented for years to come. According to Bob Young, "This is Eric Raymond's great contribution to the success of the open source revolution, to the adoption of Linux-based operating systems, and to the success of open source users and the companies that supply them." The interest in open source software development has grown enormously in the past year. This revised and expanded paperback edition includes new material on open source developments in 1999 and 2000. Raymond's clear and effective writing style accurately describing the benefits of open source software has been key to its success. With major vendors creating acceptance for open source within companies, independent vendors will become the open source story in 2001.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 43 more reviews...
A Collection of Essays on Open Source April 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Cathedral and the Bazaar is a collection of essays originally meant for programmers and technical managers, written by Eric S. Raymond on software engineering methods, based on his observations of the Linux kernel development process and his experiences managing an open source project, fetchmail.
I you like a deeper work on Linux development, I can recommend the book "Rebel Code" by Glyn Moody.
fetchmail, is an open-source software utility to retrieve e-mail from a remote mail server. It was developed by Eric S. Raymond from the popclient program, written by Carl Harris. Its chief significance is perhaps that its author, Eric S. Raymond, used it as a model to discuss his theories of open source software development in this book. Some programmers, including Dan Bernstein, getmail creator Charles Cazabon and FreeBSD developer Terry Lambert, have criticized fetchmail's design], its number of security holes, and that it was prematurely put into "maintenance mode". In 2004, a new team of maintainers took over fetchmail development, and laid out development plans that in some cases broke with design decisions that Eric Raymond had made in earlier versions.
The essays in the book describe open-source software, the process of systematically harnessing open develplment and decentralized peer review to lower costs and improve software quality. contrasts two different free software development models:
-The Cathedral model, in which source code is available with each software release, but code developed between releases is restricted to an exclusive group of software developers. GNU Emacs and GCC are presented as examples.
-The Bazaar model, in which the code is developed over the Internet in view of the public. Raymond credits Linus Torvalds, leader of the Linux kernel project, as the inventor of this process. Raymond also provides anecdotal accounts of his own implementation of this model for the fetchmail project.
The essay's central thesis is Raymond's proposition that "given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow" (which he terms Linus' law): the more widely available the source code is for public testing, scrutiny, and experimentation, the more rapidly all forms of bugs will be discovered. In contrast, Raymond claims that an inordinate amount of time and energy must be spent hunting for bugs in the Cathedral model, since the working version of the code is available only to a few developers.
When O'Reilly Media published the book in 1999, it achieved another distinction by being the first complete and commercially distributed book published under the Open Publication License.
 Good book but definitely not a classic March 2, 2008
I felt the book had some good points and then other times I was struggling to get myself to pick it back up. Overall worth the read but not in my top 5 list by any means.
 gives a "blow by blow" about how "open source decentralized software development" CAN work, with a caveat February 16, 2008
The title says it all,
however, the caveat is that if the "instigator" of the particular form of software does not have the "cache" or "credentials" in the open source community then the chances of a REALLY BIG item being developed is rather small. BUT, if the "item" can catch on, then it can be done better and faster than a "paid for development".
Slightly breathless, front-line reporting from the Linux warfront December 28, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I like this book for many reasons. First of all, it uses lots of specific examples to prove a point. Two, the author was right at the front lines during the formative days of Linux and open source and he does not hide his biases. Three, he is a very insightful guy and he sure as heck knows how to turn a phrase.
That said, the book is not that far removed from a polemic. He has drawn his conclusions and moved on from contemplation to conviction. So if there is any point along the way you disagree, what follows is going to give you frustration.
I'd suggest reading this in conjunction with The Success of Open Source, which despite its title, is far more balanced and has the best history of the open source movement I have ever read. I've given that book 5 stars. The two balance each other out quite nicely.
Good but can get Technical at times December 28, 2007
This book is a great and very interesting read. While you can get the collection of essays online, for free. I prefer the book, easier on my eyes. ESR (author) tries to keep it straight foreward, however at times he drifts into a technical world, which somewhat flew over my head. If you are interested in the Open Source community, namely what makes it work, and what problems it has in store, this is a great book.
He Gives personal experience which I really value, and he doesn't try and hide the short comings of Open Source Development.
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