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My analysis of how and why the Linux development model works, as given at Linux Kongress 97, the Atlanta Linux Showcase, the first Perl Conference, and LinuxPro 97. If you're using a graphical browser, you'll see a picture of me doing the first public reading at the Kongress to the left. (It's a PNG; if the compositing doesn't quite work, your browser is to blame.)
Here's the HTML. You can also download the original SGML. You can also download PostScript of the full paper or even flat ASCII.
(Yes, I'm well aware that the Postscript version is rather mangled. No, I can't realistically fix it. SGML-tools 1.0.9 is a bit broken and needs a maintainer. Instead of writing me to complain, you should volunteer.)
You can download RealAudio recordings of the stand-up version of this talk from the Kongress. I have ISDN-rate samples (9 meg) that you can stream or download. I used to have a 28.8K-sample version here, but that turned out to be truncated halfway through.
This paper influenced Netscape's decision to release Communicator 5.0 in source, and there are hopeful signs that it may be launching a long-overdue reliability revolution in the software industry. You can read the story so far.
Note: this paper (like its topic) is still evolving as I get more feedback. I have made extensive revisions and additions for the The Cathedral and the Bazaar book. Even if you've heard me do the stand-up version, you may want to reread it.
You can read a German translation of an early version of the paper (after Würzburg, before Atlanta). There are recent Chinese (Big-5), French, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, Portuguese Korean and Thai translations.
This is the first of three papers I have written on the ecology of open-source software. The second is Homesteading the Noosphere. The third one is The Magic Cauldron. All these papers are now available hardbound as a book, titled "The Cathedral and the Bazaar", from O'Reilly Associates.
If you like these papers, you will probably also enjoy my How To Become A Hacker FAQ (also in the book).
Clay Shirky has expanded on the value of rapid evolution and the design of systems that encourage it in an excellent paper, In Praise of Evolvable Systems; also in View Source: Lessons from the Web's Massively Parallel Development
The first critique of this paper to appear, When a Bazaar is Not a Bazaar, was thought-provoking but (IMO) basically wrongheaded. There is better commentary available, and a very thoughtful critique in Beyond the Cathedral, Beyond The Bazaar. The Linux Storm attempts to situate this paper within a larger analysis.
If you think reading a ludicrously bad critique might be entertaining, see Nikolai Bezroukov's paper in First Monday. There is a link to it in my response.
There is even an insanely funny parody of this paper, The Circus Midget and the Fossilized Dinosaur Turd. My sides hurt after reading it.
| Back to Eric's Home Page | Up to Site Map | $Date: 1999/10/26 15:22:59 $ |