brunjact's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
2.0
Expected more content of first person history. Although it has some, and much to my delight, most of the book feels like an economics lesson. Open source has grown much since 2001, date of the revised edition, and for that this book feels a bit outdated.
kartik's review against another edition
5.0
A must read to understand how open source works with examples on Linux, author's own open source project - fetchmail, GNU project, Netscape to Mozilla transition and more. Good comparison with Fred Brook's views in Mythical Man-Month and how being based on some assumptions, they do not apply to the bazaar model.
arunaugustine's review against another edition
3.0
Amazing book on why the open source model works, supported by frameworks more than: software is supposed to be free ideology. Gives insight into the hacker culture which is anthropologically mapped to "gift culture" where status is earned by what you contribute to the community rather than what you own which other's don't have. Overall offers an alternative view to life from the vantage point of hackers (just to be clear not crackers: who try to search for security vulnerabilities in systems and exploit them. The author compares them to guys who knows how to hotwire a car vs a an automotive engineer (more like hacker).
ferperales's review against another edition
4.0
¡Buen libro! Esta edición es una recopilación de varios de los ensayos más importantes de Eric S. Raymond sobre Software Libre y Open Source.
islomar's review against another edition
5.0
One of those "basis" books that you need to read at some point.
alexander0's review against another edition
5.0
This book is a piece of history and an introduction to a culture that (if you're interested in real "hacker culture" and online culture) is not explained at its technological, economic, and social origins as well in any other text that I've seen. No more explanations are necessary. If you are interested in how born-web-native culture works, this is where you start.
erikars's review against another edition
This is a collection of essays which are all available online but nice to have in book form. The common theme through all the essays is explaining, from an insider's point of view, who hackers are and why open source software seems to work so well. Although ESR can sometimes brush off the commercial world (and even the academic world) a bit quickly, his essays feel right to me overall.
I think he is right about why open source software tends to be of such good quality (frequent small releases, users encouraged to submit bugs and become part of the developer community, peer review). However, I think it is going a bit far to say that the factors which make OSS good also make closed source bad.
One area where the analysis does seem to be right on is his discussion of why people contribute to open source. The short version is that people contribute to open source because they have a need or an interest in the problem, but they continue contributing in open source because they build up a reputation. This reputation is not for themselves, but for their code and other work. No one can be an open source coder for the reputation, but the reputation is the community's way of letting developers know that their work is being used and appreciated. One way to think of it is that reputation lets people know there is value is working for others, not just themselves.
Anyone who participates in code development should read this book.
I think he is right about why open source software tends to be of such good quality (frequent small releases, users encouraged to submit bugs and become part of the developer community, peer review). However, I think it is going a bit far to say that the factors which make OSS good also make closed source bad.
One area where the analysis does seem to be right on is his discussion of why people contribute to open source. The short version is that people contribute to open source because they have a need or an interest in the problem, but they continue contributing in open source because they build up a reputation. This reputation is not for themselves, but for their code and other work. No one can be an open source coder for the reputation, but the reputation is the community's way of letting developers know that their work is being used and appreciated. One way to think of it is that reputation lets people know there is value is working for others, not just themselves.
Anyone who participates in code development should read this book.
oddrop's review
4.0
The book is an exploration into the world of Open Source, and the culture that goes with it. It goes beyond the definitions and the initial perception and instead gives an inside view of a universe of hackers, magic cauldrons, bazaars and John Locke.
Open Source is nothing more than a development methodology, with its own sets of rules and principles. The difference from other methodologies is that the developers are not working in close approximation to each other. They are exclusively communicating through the internet. Though for some reason Open Source has become so much more. It is something more resembling a dogmatic approach to software development that by shear force of nature gathers engaged communities, tying them together tighter than most other communities, and included with them are their own social hierarchies formed based on recognition for produced work.
These communities are together creating a digital noosphere. Places where ideas and systems and ideas of systems, mingle and crash together to make free and open software. This cultural phenomenon is enabled by the developed connectedness that has come with the internet. In its early days in the 70s- with ARPANET, through the 80s and into the crazy 90s where Open Source became into its own as a great force for both disruption and innovation.
I think that open source will be more prevalent in the future, and this book is a great introduction into, the all too frequently used as a buzzword, Open Source. The book is interesting for anyone how is inclined to delve deeper into the world of Open Source, and it will give you a deeper perspective than usually comes when new technology is explained to the uninitiated.
Open Source is nothing more than a development methodology, with its own sets of rules and principles. The difference from other methodologies is that the developers are not working in close approximation to each other. They are exclusively communicating through the internet. Though for some reason Open Source has become so much more. It is something more resembling a dogmatic approach to software development that by shear force of nature gathers engaged communities, tying them together tighter than most other communities, and included with them are their own social hierarchies formed based on recognition for produced work.
These communities are together creating a digital noosphere. Places where ideas and systems and ideas of systems, mingle and crash together to make free and open software. This cultural phenomenon is enabled by the developed connectedness that has come with the internet. In its early days in the 70s- with ARPANET, through the 80s and into the crazy 90s where Open Source became into its own as a great force for both disruption and innovation.
I think that open source will be more prevalent in the future, and this book is a great introduction into, the all too frequently used as a buzzword, Open Source. The book is interesting for anyone how is inclined to delve deeper into the world of Open Source, and it will give you a deeper perspective than usually comes when new technology is explained to the uninitiated.
simonvv's review against another edition
This book made me understand Open source development, sharing of code to build something greater. One of best books read on Software engineering
It is based on intrinsic motivation, and exponential commitment. I found the critique against brooks law interesting as well.
Who should read this?
- You are interested in collaborating in big codebases
- Interested in understanding bigger collective processes
- Fans of distributed systems
It is based on intrinsic motivation, and exponential commitment. I found the critique against brooks law interesting as well.
Who should read this?
- You are interested in collaborating in big codebases
- Interested in understanding bigger collective processes
- Fans of distributed systems