Customer Reviews

Open Source: The Unauthorized White Papers

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Open Source: The Unathorized White Papers is a real contrast to the other more well known book I've read on the subject, The Cathedral and the Bazaar. While Cathedral and Bazaar reads like a series of unorganized USENET posts and random musings, Open Source is very well organized, and professionally written and edited. It contains up to date and accurate information about a range of topics relating to open source, including history, examples of businesses, and licensing. 

The book's coverage of licensing is easily the most complete source for understanding a very complex subject. There are so many misconceptions of what licensing means in terms of software that the book is a must read if you either run a software company or are considering investing in one.

The only issue I have with the book is its description of the Java programming language as not having "a community". Being on the board of directors for the local Java User's Group I naturally take issue with that characterization, but for the sake of brevity, as well as sticking to the topic at hand, I will refrain from bringing out the voluminous amount of evidence to the contrary. :-)

For disclosure, I must admit to having met Mr. Rosenberg in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina. This isn't hard to do, considering he attends meetings of nearly every technical group I can think of, and is an expert on "people" networking.

This book is a compilation of essays on open source from the author. He covers the origins and history, as well as a responsible coverage of the licensing models. While there is an over emphasis of Linux, it does talk about various business models that can be used in the open source context. It also includes the text of some of the major open source licenses.

Sometimes a home run is little more than a hit causing an increment tick to a stat, but once in a while it's a powerful work of art that changes the game--Donald Rosenberg's book is the latter. It is, by far, the best book on Open Source written to date.

As someone involved with open source strategies at a large corporation in the computer industry, I found Donald's book to be objective, insightful, and current which reflects an intimate knowledge of someone on the inside.

The level-headedness of this book makes it an essential read for anyone trying to understand the counter-intuitive nature of open source or protect themselves from the FUD, emotions, and convoluted conversations that plague Open Source.

This book presents an excellant overview of the open source development arena: who is playing, why they are playing, where are they headed, etc. It also provides an excellant grounding in the forces that shaped the movement, as well as the individuals who found themselves leading a movement (when they really thought they were just good programmers).

The book is well written and organized, with interesting side stories that provide a drill-down view of key areas. There is also good discussion of the strategy that is behind the key players in the game today, as well as insights into emerging opportunities.

For anyone who wants a good overview of this revolutionary method of software development, this is it.

This was an excellent book; well researched, well written, and well organized. This book provided a remarkable contrast to "The Cathedral and the Baazar", which, while interesting, was generally poor in its organization and far too biased to take seriously. Although the author is obviously biased towards open sourse, this is the most objective book I've read coming from the open source community. Rosenberg often objectively points out the challenges the open source debate will face legally and philisophically in the near future. This is a great reference book for anyone interested in the open source debate.