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The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary Revised & Expanded ed. Edition

by Eric Raymond (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 280 ratings
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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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  1. ISBN-10
    0596001088
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0596001087
  3. Edition
    Revised & Expanded ed.
  4. Publisher
    O'Reilly Media
  5. Publication date
    March 13, 2001
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.54 x 8.5 inches
  8. Print length
    256 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Eric Raymond is an Open Source evangelist and author of the highly influential paper "The Cathedral and the Bazaar".

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ O'Reilly Media; Revised & Expanded ed. edition (March 13, 2001)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0596001088
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0596001087
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.54 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 280 ratings

About the author

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Eric S. Raymond

Eric S. Raymond

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I design software, and I write books about software design. My software helps power pretty much every Internet-aware device you use daily - smartphones, ATMs, browsers. My books tend to have consequences and stay interesting for a long time. What I try to do is inquire deeply into timeless design patterns and the mindset that makes for great software

When I'm not writing code or books, I'm a science fiction fan, a martial artist, a firearms instructor, and a championship-level strategy gamer. I like Szechuan food, cats, and redheads. I live in Malvern, Pennsylvania with a redheaded wife and a ginger cat. You can read my personal blog at: http://esr.ibiblio.org

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Top reviews from the United States

K. Scott Proctor
5.0 out of 5 stars Lessons for Technology Beyond Open Source
Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2010
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Eric S. Raymond offers readers a set of essays and thoughts on technology in "The Cathedral & the Bazaar." Bound to be a classic of technology writing and thinking, this compendium effectively bridges the gap between a technical subject matter and mainstream business thinking.

Raymond covers topics ranging from the inner workings of an open source application development effort to the economics of open versus closed source software. Some of the writing (and thinking) here is quite advanced and complex -- Raymond pulls no punches nor oversimplifies a complex set of topics.

By way of example, Raymond notes, "...the [open-source] culture's adaptation to its circumstances manifests both as conscious ideology and as implicit, unconscious or semi-conscious knowledge." I highlight this point so that the reader has some sense of what to expect with this publication -- the book is thought-provoking and requires significant thinking and attention -- a sign of a good book, in my opinion.

For a thorough, intelligent, and broadly interesting treatise on open-source software and general technology principles, this is an excellent book. I highly recommend this book.
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Benjamin Rossen
4.0 out of 5 stars A classic with much to offer, but flawed.
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2005
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Eric Raymond is widely regarded as the anthropologist of the hacker community. This is Eric Raymond's revised classic with some new material. It is the first comprehensive commentary on the sociology of the Open Source community, and recommended reading for anyone doing business in software development, or running a business that depends on software and the Internet.

Like many of Eric Raymond's colleagues and fellow Geeks, he is clearly a brilliant individual, carried forward by focused effort and imagination. And like many talented people, he is an autodidact; self taught bar some courses in philosophy and mathematics. This is not a criticism. Raymond's career, publications and contribution show amply the intellectual qualities he possesses. However, his lack of training in social, economic and cultural science shows. And, as an insider (he is one of the original tribe of hackers) he is not the best person to make a disinterested commentary on the hacker community.

Great hackers, he tells us, are humble people. A more critical observer would have analyzed the comparative payoffs of styles showing why a loud mouth style - while it might work for some performers or show oriented careers - doesn't pay in this community. This is generally true of communities in which peers are well able to judge the quality of each other's contributions. Faking it doesn't payoff, and looking like you might need to fake it is counter productive. Insofar as the behaviour of chief hackers is humble, we learn more about the social economy of hackerdom than about distinctive individual personalities.

Despite many insights, Eric Raymond is wrong in his principal analysis. Why, he asks, do talented people spend years of unpaid work on projects that benefit others for no pecuniary reward? He characterizes hackers as members of a gift giving community, and attributes too much of the hacker motivation to altruism and idealism.

The central problem is not "why do hackers work for no pay?" Rather, why do people work for money? Or, more fundamentally, why do people work? I take it that readers will agree that we can roughly divide our motives into physiological drives (hunger, thirst, need for shelter, sex) and the "higher" needs (self fulfilment and meaning). After satisfying the needs for food, shelter and companionship why do we continue to work at all? If it is to get status, to get power, to feel good about ourselves and similar, then money beyond basic needs is unnecessary. Onassis once remarked "Without women, all the money in the world is worthless." Some of us work to become wealthy, and we trade that wealth for status, power, respect and admiration, and perhaps we use our wealth to get women, sex and occasionally love. If this is what these motives are for, then even the higher needs are secondary to sex; or, as evolutionary psychologists tell us, are all about reproduction.

Money is a means. If I can earn status, power and respect directly, why waste time with money? Of course, money is fungible. That means it can be traded easily for a great many things; a big house and a luxury car, perhaps. But possessing these is merely another way of obtaining status, power, respect, admiration and sex, if not love.

Why am I writing this review? By my own dispassionate analysis, I am advertising my capacity to say sensible things and I am making a reputation; this is an asset in the social and commercial market place. Amazon might like me for doing this, but they would be mistaken to think that I write reviews out of altruism directed at Amazon; at least not defined in any metaphysical or moral sense. Sociobiologists denote some social instincts "altruism" but these are operational definitions of instincts as Machiavellian as any scheming tactician can be said to possess; in that sense I may be an altruist. Hackers too, for their work is not unlike my book reviews. Hackers trade in an economy that differs not one jot from the money economy, and Eric Raymond, in so far as he supposes it to be a fundamentally different kind of economy, is mistaken.

Likewise the account of hacker commitment to lofty ideals are not any more credible - but also not any less credible - than the mission statements and codes of ethics written by CEOs of major corporations. Among hackers are people as likely to steal code as are others to donate code; to write viruses as to write Fetch Mail. An anarchic disrespect for some of our more widely accepted conventions for protecting property rights is a characteristic of hacker mentality; not one that we should admire. Of course, honourable idealists are found among hackers; Eric Raymond is clearly one of them. Take, for example, the Open Source Initiative that is largely his work. What an outstanding contribution that is! Clearly he is passionate about his beliefs and ideals. But honourable idealists are found among entrepreneurs too, also successful ones, and even among politicians. Let us not delude ourselves about what it is the really motivates us and our fellow travellers.
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frsoares
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2012
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Although I already had an overall favorable opinion of the book long before buying and reading it, my expectations were surpassed. Very good points are made throughout the book, which must be considered even when not agreeing with all of them. Furthermore, ESR's writing makes this a technical book unlike its kind: it feels like reading a novel; even though all his points are made objectively, his style doesn't tire the reader like most technical reviews do. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone with even the slightest interest in the sociology or economics behind software development in general - not only open source.
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Christopher Williams
5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone in the Software World Needs to Read This
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2014
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Everyone -- from the lowliest developer or tester, to the top CEOs of major software developers (in the cathedral), to CIOs of every firm, to even CEOs of companies that rely heavily on software -- NEEDS to read this book.

Yes, it's dated. Yes, all the references are 20 years old. That doesn't make any of the main points of the book any less valid. The software world has changed. This book is the original book that explains why. And it's still the gold standard on the Open Source movement.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Edil Medeiros
5.0 out of 5 stars Agora você vai entender o que é software livre
Reviewed in Brazil on May 26, 2024
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Eu não me canso de reler The Cathedral and The Bazzar, ele mudou totalmente a minha percepção sobre o que é software livre e porque eu deveria investir mais em contribuir com esse tipo de projeto para melhorar meu entendimento de computação e melhorar minha reputação profissional.
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Manuel Molina Cuberos
5.0 out of 5 stars Gran libro y pésima entrega
Reviewed in Spain on July 18, 2023
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El libro responde a la descripción.
Lamentablemente Correos forzó el libro dentro del buzón y lo rompió.
He tenido que reparar el lomo del libro, y aún así ha quedado torcido.
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Aaron Luna
5.0 out of 5 stars Lectura recomendada
Reviewed in Mexico on October 5, 2019
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Excelente opción para conocer más del tema de software libre y de código abierto.
One person found this helpful
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Matteo Tempestini
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!
Reviewed in Italy on October 10, 2018
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Uno dei più bei libri che abbia mai letto. Una lettura consigliata per chi è dentro l'ingegneria del software e vuol comprendere meglio il rapporto tra software proprietario e software libero.
3 people found this helpful
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D. Hawthorne
4.0 out of 5 stars Dated but still relevant
Reviewed in Australia on May 26, 2019
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Given the rapid changes in the world of open-source software development, this book is expected to out-dated after several years. However, many of the insights from the author remain relevant today and are likely to be so for the near future.

I read this book on the recommendation of Fred Brooks in his book "The Design of Design": "I strongly urge all of my readers to read Raymond -- not just the widely circulated title essay, but the other chapters in the book. There is much truth, much insight, and much wisdom there." (p.56)

From the perspective of design, the open-source model is presented as having difficulties in originating new products. Brooks puts this problem as the best designs comes from an individual, not from a group. Brooks says that "...great designs have conceptual integrity--unity, economy, clarity." (p.8) Raymond reiterates this point: "It's fairly clear that one cannot code from the ground up in bazaar style." (p.27)

Raymond also explores several possibilities of governance of open-source projects. Direct democracy is not one of them. At best, the governance is done by an aristocracy of elite contributors. At worst, there is the benevolent dictator model. Because membership in a project is voluntary, the non-benevolent dictator model quickly fails.

Raymond is unable to resolve this tension between the great design of a project from a benevolent dictator and the participatory democracy beloved by open-source advocates.
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