To the author's credit, the book overall is provocative, very interesting, and somewhat compelling. Raymond makes arguments throughout about the benefits of open source over closed for the software industry. What's impressive about these arguments is how many of them are made independent of any open source ideology; instead he draws from political theory, economics, and game theory to illustrate how open source is actually in many cases the rational choice for a self-interested entity, and consequently inevitable (in his opinion). Raymond also paints a colorful picture of hacker culture that conveys the group's fascinating dynamic, while enough of his own character and achievements are revealed to suggest why he's so qualified to be speaking: his title essay is widely credited as a primary inspiration for the transformation of Netscape Navigator into Mozilla Firefox; he helped charter the Mozilla Public License; in "Revenge of the Hackers", he admits (without much modesty) that "by late 1993, many people (including myself) had come to think of me as the hacker culture's tribal historian and resident ethnographer"; etc.

But the book has weaknesses as well. Raymond frequently comes off as abrasively egotistical, and it's disconcerting how many typos you can find. Moreover, his system of endnotes is misnumbered in some places and completely confounding in others; I still don't understand it fully, though I've made corrections to some of the numbering mistakes and will be happy to pass them on. In addition, all of the examples he cites are dated by at least eight years, even in this revised text (though that's not to say they aren't still instructive). He keeps the most updated version of the text on his website at [...], where many of these criticisms may be addressed; I haven't checked.

I could not put this book down. In a nutshell: it's is about software and development models. Don't yawn just yet - this book definitely held onto my attention throughout. Eric Raymond has a great way of introducing the subject matter as he shares his first-hand experiences as a free software developer.
If you ever tried or thought about writing software, especially free (as in speech) software, you've probably heard of this book. A must-read.

The Cathedral and the Bazaar is a collection of essays originally meant for programmers and technical managers, written by Eric S. Raymond on software engineering methods, based on his observations of the Linux kernel development process and his experiences managing an open source project, fetchmail.

I you like a deeper work on Linux development, I can recommend the book "Rebel Code" by Glyn Moody.

fetchmail, is an open-source software utility to retrieve e-mail from a remote mail server. It was developed by Eric S. Raymond from the popclient program, written by Carl Harris. Its chief significance is perhaps that its author, Eric S. Raymond, used it as a model to discuss his theories of open source software development in this book. Some programmers, including Dan Bernstein, getmail creator Charles Cazabon and FreeBSD developer Terry Lambert, have criticized fetchmail's design], its number of security holes, and that it was prematurely put into "maintenance mode". In 2004, a new team of maintainers took over fetchmail development, and laid out development plans that in some cases broke with design decisions that Eric Raymond had made in earlier versions.

The essays in the book describe open-source software, the process of systematically harnessing open develplment and decentralized peer review to lower costs and improve software quality. contrasts two different free software development models:

- The Cathedral model, in which source code is available with each software release, but code developed between releases is restricted to an exclusive group of software developers. GNU Emacs and GCC are presented as examples.

- The Bazaar model, in which the code is developed over the Internet in view of the public. Raymond credits Linus Torvalds, leader of the Linux kernel project, as the inventor of this process. Raymond also provides anecdotal accounts of his own implementation of this model for the fetchmail project.

The essay's central thesis is Raymond's proposition that "given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow" (which he terms Linus' law): the more widely available the source code is for public testing, scrutiny, and experimentation, the more rapidly all forms of bugs will be discovered. In contrast, Raymond claims that an inordinate amount of time and energy must be spent hunting for bugs in the Cathedral model, since the working version of the code is available only to a few developers.

When O'Reilly Media published the book in 1999, it achieved another distinction by being the first complete and commercially distributed book published under the Open Publication License.

I felt the book had some good points and then other times I was struggling to get myself to pick it back up. Overall worth the read but not in my top 5 list by any means.

The title says it all,
however, the caveat is that if the "instigator" of the particular form of software does not have the "cache" or "credentials" in the open source community then the chances of a REALLY BIG item being developed is rather small. BUT, if the "item" can catch on, then it can be done better and faster than a "paid for development".

This book is a great and very interesting read. While you can get the collection of essays online, for free. I prefer the book, easier on my eyes. ESR (author) tries to keep it straight foreward, however at times he drifts into a technical world, which somewhat flew over my head. If you are interested in the Open Source community, namely what makes it work, and what problems it has in store, this is a great book.
He Gives personal experience which I really value, and he doesn't try and hide the short comings of Open Source Development.

I like this book for many reasons. First of all, it uses lots of specific examples to prove a point. Two, the author was right at the front lines during the formative days of Linux and open source and he does not hide his biases. Three, he is a very insightful guy and he sure as heck knows how to turn a phrase.

That said, the book is not that far removed from a polemic. He has drawn his conclusions and moved on from contemplation to conviction. So if there is any point along the way you disagree, what follows is going to give you frustration.

I'd suggest reading this in conjunction with The Success of Open Source, which despite its title, is far more balanced and has the best history of the open source movement I have ever read. I've given that book 5 stars. The two balance each other out quite nicely.

If you've ever wondered what Linux is, or what it is all about, this book covers all the bases. From the origins of opensource software to its current-day fallout, Raymond writes an easily accessible commentary.

I think it's quite hard to find a book (and also an author) with deep knowledge and clear information related to Open Source software as this one. The logic presented here is useful not only for aspirant hackers but also for everyone interesting in the fascinating Open Source revolution.

I'm enjoying this book very, very much!!!
I makes you want to adere to an Open Source project. :)

This is my second experience with ESR's books, and I've been very pleased with both of them. Looking at software development from his "anthropologist" perspective, has proven extremely helpful in better understanding my experiences in the industry, and especially in seeing things about people and processes that I didn't realize were there until he'd pointed them out. I don't think this would have made much sense to me if I was new to the software development environment, but now that I've been in it for several years and experienced different people and different groups with their own different processes, ESR's conceptual insights have helped me evaluate my own way of working and thinking. I highly recommend this book to anyone who's been in software development for at least three years... I think your own experience is very important to have behind you when reading ESR's books. This kind of reading led me to the Fred Brook classic "The Mythical Man-Month", which I think is still full of applicable insights (a whopping 30 years after it was first published).

Eric Raymond presents a coherent and well-supported case that explains why open source makes commercial sense. Putting aside the "religious" fervor of some of his arguments, the logic on why the open source movement can spawn successful businesses is irrefutable. Read it and you will understand why traditional (proprietary) software business models have become a dying breed. I would rate the book a "5" but for some parts where the text becomes somewhat convoluted and repetitive. Overall, a must-read for anyone involved in software development.

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.

An exquisite work of art, a well thought-out treatise on the philosophy and mechanics of "Open-Source" software. Excellent discussions on: the real definition of "hackers', comparison of "Cathedral" versus "Bazaar" methods of software development, how "Bazaar" development produces higher quality software faster than the "Cathedral" method, and how the "Bazaar" method provides longevity to software. Finally, it is shown how the spirit of software craftsmanship is nurtured by the "Bazaar" method. All of these topics are supported by very clear and understandable case histories and logical reasoning. This book is even more important now with the growing influence of Linux and other "Open Source" software such as Mozilla's Firefox.

If you claim to love and know Open Source Software then you must own this book.

This book exposes a meta-level experience that one didn't even know one was having in this game of software development.

It takes a couple of re-reads before you really get it, but it's truly eye-opening stuff.

Highly recommended

This books starts off with a very good history of the development of the Linux operating software. This open source development process started the author thinking about the two software development methods, the Cathedral method, where a large corporate structure hires programmers to develop software, keeps the source code secret, and charges large amounts to recoup it costs, not from the original product development, but from the expected legacy problems, technical support, bug fixing, software updates, etc. On the other hand the bazaar method, encourages open source software. Open source software encourages a programmer or group within the hacker community to gain ascendancy, to possess and maintain and steer the software to keep it relevant. The Author's point is that with most business models in the future the Cathedral method (read Microsoft) will not be able to compete with the Bazaar method (read Linux). In the Cathedral method the programmers must be hired, the bazaar method the hackers are attracted to a problem, become more dedicated, revisions and bugs are handled at internet speed. The author tells of many real-life business experiences companies have had adopting the open source method. The middle of the book explains the hacker ethic and how the hacker community operates. The reader learns the true meaning of "hacker" v.s. "cracker" and the true meaning of free software. The author predicts that open source software will make deep in-roads into the Fortune-500 companies. That their investments in hardware and records may be dependent on one software company's decision to continue supporting that software revision is the problem. Open source software would provide a proliferation of hacker communities willing to constantly update older software. The author appears to know his stuff and progressively throughout the book the author lets it leak out that he is one of the hacker community and is a player/spokesman in this software battle I found this book a real eye-opener, can Microsoft's workforce continue to support software like Windows 2000 with 60 million lines of code, as opposed to Linux taking advantage of a worldwide army of hackers reporting bugs, writing patches, and keeping hardware drivers updated. Time will tell.
This book was enough to prompt this reader to obtain a copy of Linux just in case..

Raymond does a very good job of explaining the pros of the open source model. His work is a little weak in explaining the other side. In the essay "The Magic Cauldron" He asks what are the payoffs ? He does only a moderate job of portraying the strengths of the closed source approach.

Having read "The hiistory of the Internet" several times I thought that the chapter "A breif History of Hackerdo" would be a yawn fest but it was very interesting. I would still disagree with many of the conclusions Raymond draws, especially about the economics and business case of open source but I found his analyisis of the motivations of hackers very interesting. In all I liked the work very much.

The work is very well written and well thought out. It gives the strengths of the open source approach very well. It also gives a lot of insights into "Hackerdom" and "Hackers"

If you are interested in a book on Open SOurce This is a very good read.

Eric Scott Raymond is described as "An Accidental Revolutionary," as he took a leading role in analyzing and documenting the changes and growth of the Open Source (or "Free Software") movement that he, as a programmer, is part of. He's one of the "famous" people in hacker culture.

This collection of essays by ESR gives the reader a glimpse into the world of Hackers (good programmers, not to be confused with people who break into computers, those are "crackers"). He goes into how and why it works, what the pros and cons of open source vs. closed source software is, and predicts where things will go in the future.

Because this book is separated into individual essays that he has written, it's easy just to go through and read what you want. But to any person who is playing a part, or who wants to play a part in the hacker world, the whole thing is a must read. It gives you a lot to think about when it comes to the open source world, and builds up a great respect and understanding of the people pioneering it.

It's a very good book, it's a book that I'd recommend to all the (major) hackers that I know. I'm sure that this is quite obvious, in that this book is mainly good reading for hackers or hackers-to-be, but I would just like to restate that you would most benefit from this book if you also already have an open source project, or is thinking of open sourcing a project that you have running.