(Approx. 394 words)

The Cathedral & the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond Published 1999
Reviewed by Sean Henderson, a member of the Danbury Area Computer Society, Connecticut
www.dacs.org
shenderson (at)dacs.org

This article has been obtained from APCUG with the author’s permission for publication by APCUG member groups; all other uses require the permission of the author (see e-mail address above).

About ten years ago a very inspiring book was published by a famed hacker by the name of Eric S. Raymond. The title is "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" published in 1999. Raymond was the author of a program in UNIX called fetchmail and this book is based on an essay he presented at a Linux event. I came across this volume in the bookshelf where I work. The title was cited in the documentary "Revolution OS". Now having read the book I can see where much of the book and documentary dovetail.

Raymond's book has some not-so-obvious aspects to it. One is that it is a bit of a theoretical primer on economics and resource management theory.  Before reading the book I didn't know the terms "hierarchy culture", "exchange culture" and "gift culture". Now being aware of these terms and definitions, I look at open-source software in a more informed way. For the past couple months I've been concerned at work that I was the only developer on a commercial application with thousands of users. After reading this book it has confirmed my notion that developing in isolation is not the most advantageous way to develop any application, regardless of whether the source files are released or not. The implications for development of any complex system are apparent.

One of the book's nuggets is a quote from Linus Torvalds that "given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow." Other great information is provided on the nature of hacking, the term "hacker" and how it is abused in media, and the origins of the whole free software movement and various other distinctions. It also explains to non-programmers and business types why programmers would contribute code and improvements to a project on a volunteer basis.

www.amazon.com / $11.56

I highly recommend this book to anyone involved in any sort of software development or if you are managing a software project. It is a useful book also for filling in some technology history gaps, and perhaps (re)learn some key concepts.