Buying Options

Digital List Price:	$19.99
Print List Price:	$24.95
Kindle Price:	$9.99 Save $14.96 (60%)

Enter a promotion code or Gift Card

Share <Embed>

Producing Open Source Software: How to Run a Successful Free Software Project by [Karl Fogel]

Follow the Author

Karl Fogel

Producing Open Source Software: How to Run a Successful Free Software Project Kindle Edition

by Karl Fogel (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

35 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$9.99

—

Paperback

"Please retry"

$24.95

$17.72

$4.00

The corporate market is now embracing free, "open source" software like never before, as evidenced by the recent success of the technologies underlying LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP). Each is the result of a publicly collaborative process among numerous developers who volunteer their time and energy to create better software.

The truth is, however, that the overwhelming majority of free software projects fail. To help you beat the odds, O'Reilly has put together Producing Open Source Software, a guide that recommends tried and true steps to help free software developers work together toward a common goal. Not just for developers who are considering starting their own free software project, this book will also help those who want to participate in the process at any level.

The book tackles this very complex topic by distilling it down into easily understandable parts. Starting with the basics of project management, it details specific tools used in free software projects, including version control, IRC, bug tracking, and Wikis. Author Karl Fogel, known for his work on CVS and Subversion, offers practical advice on how to set up and use a range of tools in combination with open mailing lists and archives. He also provides several chapters on the essentials of recruiting and motivating developers, as well as how to gain much-needed publicity for your project.

While managing a team of enthusiastic developers -- most of whom you've never even met -- can be challenging, it can also be fun. Producing Open Source Software takes this into account, too, as it speaks of the sheer pleasure to be had from working with a motivated team of free software developers.

Print length

194 pages
Language

English
Publisher

O'Reilly Media
Publication date

October 7, 2005
File size

570 KB
Page Flip

Enabled
Word Wise

Not Enabled
Enhanced typesetting

Enabled
See all details

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Nadia Eghbal
237
Kindle Edition
$9.99
VM (Vicky) Brasseur
13
Kindle Edition
$21.99
Andrew M. St. Laurent
21
Kindle Edition
$16.19
Van Lindberg
30
Kindle Edition
$15.39
Steve WEBER
18
Kindle Edition
$15.12
Heather Meeker
5
Kindle Edition
$9.99

Customers who read this book also read

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

VM (Vicky) Brasseur
13
Kindle Edition
$21.99
Nadia Eghbal
237
Kindle Edition
$9.99
Eric S. Raymond
168
Kindle Edition
$9.99
Ward Farnsworth
825
Kindle Edition
$8.69
Jono Bacon
26
Kindle Edition
$18.35
Charles Vogl
237
Kindle Edition
$9.99

Amazon Business: Make the most of your Amazon Business account with exclusive tools and savings. Login now

Amazon Business : For business-only pricing, quantity discounts and FREE Shipping. Register a free business account

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

In 1995, Karl Fogel co-founded Cyclic Software, a company offering commercial CVS support. In 1999 he added support for CVS anonymous read-only repository access, inaugurating a new standard for access to development sources in open source projects. That same year, he wrote "Open Source Development With CVS" (published by Coriolis), now in its third edition via Paraglyph Press.

Since early 2000, he has worked for CollabNet, Inc, managing the creation and development of Subversion, a version control system written from scratch by CollabNet and a team of open source volunteers, and meant to replace CVS as the de facto standard among open source projects. He also participates in various other open source projects as a module maintainer, patch contributor, and documentation writer.

--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN : B0026OR37Q
Publisher : O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (October 7, 2005)
Publication date : October 7, 2005
Language : English
File size : 570 KB
Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Not Enabled
Print length : 194 pages
Lending : Not Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #1,178,106 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #304 in Linux
- #1,121 in Linux Operating System
- #1,170 in Software Development (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
35 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		55%
4 star		12%
3 star		19%
2 star		5%
1 star		8%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Ranx0r0x

Some good insights but dated

Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2012

Verified Purchase

There is a lot of good experiential knowledge in this book and I'm glad I picked it up. However, some of the more pragmatic aspects of open source projects like the hosts, mailing lists, IM, bug tracking, version control and that sort are dated. The author could restore this book to top flight status if he just took the time to update these elements. It'd take him all of one week, if that.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Lucas Nazário

In my case, five stars is an understatement

Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2007

Verified Purchase

Just yesterday I was talking to a friend about this book and we discovered each other very glad with it. First of all, the author has a lot of experience with the theme in question. Furthermore, Karl Fogel is very compelling with words. He knows how to write down his experience in a way that is pleasant, certainly due to a lot of writes he had made through plenties of open source projects.

With this book you will be in touch with topics like the needed infra-structure to setup open source projects, the dinamics of the open source community, strategies for packaging and releasing software, common issues that arise in open source daily development and how to workaround then, a brief about licenses (with properly links for more information on this topic); just to highlight some aspects.

This book was the first hand someone land me into the open source world. It's helping me in three ways: to extract more from open source softwares that already exist, to start my own open source project, and to look at software development through a new, different, and till now better perspective.

Hope this review helps you!

Helpful

Andrew Pape

Great book, one of the best Computer Science authors

Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2012

Verified Purchase

I've been a hobbyist programmer for over two decades. A computer science friend encouraged me to work on an Open Source project.

I had a lot of links about Open Source but nothing concrete or unifying. I decided that I should buy a book on the topic. My mind was muddled and I had dozens of questions that I'd need answered.

I searched and found this book. As soon as I started reading it, the author was answering my key questions. Throughout the book, the author covered more like a hundred details. His experience in the field demonstrates that he knows what he's talking about.

I learned that people-management (including how to work with conflicts, different agendas, etc) are more important than the project code itself. I also learned the importance of good documentation. And, as the author quickly pointed out, most Open Source projects are unsuccessful.

I felt that the book spent all its time on the people-dynamics and didn't say much about technologies. Not only was I new to group-development, but I'm still not sure what products to use or how, for example how to set up a forum and run it, send out mailing lists, run a web site, and so on. I guess the author just thinks these are the simple things and not worthy of mentioning. The book is small, given its great coverage of material. I was just hoping, however, that there would be a chapter on technologies. I do know the basics of version control systems, which are required, but not used to working in a team.

Since I don't have experience with leadership or management, Open Source work may be too demanding at present. This is not a criticism of the book, however.

If you are considering doing Open Source work, then this book is a must-have. The book is well written. Karl has a logical mind and good English, and conveys his thoughts clearly. There are no annoying US colloquialisms.

Of the 150 or so computer books I own, Karl Fogel, would be one of the top five authors I've read.

Helpful

Samuel Moffatt

Poor typesetting

Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2010

Verified Purchase

This SoHo Books version has absolutely abhorrent typesetting decisions with headings that are out of order as well as text fonts that are far too small which makes the book almost unreadable. Producing Open Source Software: How to Run a Successful Free Software Project is the original version and whilst I don't have a copy, if you're going to get a copy of this book, I would recommend it over this horribly typeset and put together version.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

U. C. YILDIZ

Good for novice readers

Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2013

Verified Purchase

The book is full of experiential and pragmatic knowledge about producing open source software. But it starts from the very basics and does not put too much interesting material for advanced readers. Therefore, if you are someone who is a bit familiar to software production, this book is not for you..

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Tomasz Kolinko

Excellent, not just for Open Source

Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2014

Verified Purchase

I read the book to learn how to run an open source project (Orisi.org), but got insight that proved valuable in my commercial enterprises as well. I highly recommend it to any project manager - not just open source, but NGO (you'll kearn a lot about communication transparency), and startups/corporate (you'll learn how your company can beenefit from participating in startup comunities, and perhaps get inspired to open up a part of your codebase)

Helpful

Eric L.

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2015

Verified Purchase

Great read if you're curious about how to improve the chances of success for open-source software projects.

Helpful

silona

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2015

Verified Purchase

Karl is the master and this book is the bible for OSS communities.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Meandthewife

Where abouts do I put the half used bottle of ketchup?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 29, 2018

Verified Purchase

I'm still not successful. Might sue.

Patrick H.

Full of practical advice

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 12, 2013

Verified Purchase

What I liked about this book is that it discusses the issues that open source projects face and then give practical solutions. Sometimes multiple approaches are possible, in which case the pros and cons of each are presented and discussed in a way that allows you to choose the way that suits your situation best.

Nick

Three Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 30, 2015

Verified Purchase

ok book

Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 8, 2014

Verified Purchase

Awesome book, very useful

Pankaj Kumar Saini

Never got bored of reading this book

Reviewed in India on June 14, 2020

Verified Purchase

The book was very informative and provided much help in how to start open source software business and more importantly how to create a good environment to work with other developers ..... Great buy in such a price