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Freely available source code, with contributions from thousands of programmers around the world: this is the spirit of the software revolution known as Open Source. Open Source has grabbed the computer industry's attention. Netscape has opened the source code to Mozilla; IBM supports Apache; major database vendors haved ported their products to Linux. As enterprises realize the power of the open-source development model, Open Source is becoming a viable mainstream alternative to commercial software.
Now in Open Sources, leaders of Open Source come together for the first time to discuss the new vision of the software industry they have created. The essays in this volume offer insight into how the Open Source movement works, why it succeeds, and where it is going.
For programmers who have labored on open-source projects, Open Sources is the new gospel: a powerful vision from the movement's spiritual leaders. For businesses integrating open-source software into their enterprise, Open Sources reveals the mysteries of how open development builds better software, and how businesses can leverage freely available software for a competitive business advantage.
The contributors here have been the leaders in the open-source arena:
This book explains why the majority of the Internet's servers use open- source technologies for everything from the operating system to Web serving and email. Key technology products developed with open-source software have overtaken and surpassed the commercial efforts of billion dollar companies like Microsoft and IBM to dominate software markets. Learn the inside story of what led Netscape to decide to release its source code using the open-source mode. Learn how Cygnus Solutions builds the world's best compilers by sharing the source code. Learn why venture capitalists are eagerly watching Red Hat Software, a company that gives its key product — Linux — away.
For the first time in print, this book presents the story of the open- source phenomenon told by the people who created this movement.
Open Sources will bring you into the world of free software and show you the revolution.
Freely available source code, with contributions from thousands of programmers around the world: this is the spirit of the software revolution known as Open Source. Now in "OpenSources" for the first time the leaders of Open Source come together to discuss the new vision of the software industry they have created. The book offers businesses a vital insight into how OpenSource succeeds as both a software development model and a business opportunity.
Chapter 1: AcknowledgmentsChapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: A Brief History of HackerdomChapter 3: Twenty Years of Berkeley Unix: From AT&T-Owned to Freely RedistributableChapter 4: The Internet Engineering Task ForceChapter 5: The GNU Operating System and the Free Software MovementChapter 6: Future of Cygnus Solutions: An Entrepreneur's AccountChapter 7: Software EngineeringChapter 8: The Linux EdgeChapter 9: Giving It Away: How Red Hat Software Stumbled Across a New Economic Model and Helped Improve an IndustryChapter 10: Diligence, Patience, and HumilityChapter 11: Open Source as a Business StrategyChapter 12: The Open Source DefinitionChapter 13: Hardware, Software, and InfowareChapter 14: Freeing the Source: The Story of MozillaChapter 15: The Revenge of the HackersAppendix A: The Tanenbaum-Torvalds DebateAppendix B: The Open Source Definition, Version 1.0Appendix C: Contributors
Anonymous
Posted November 16, 2000
This book is a collection of essays by various authors who are involved in either distributing Open Source Software or are proponents of it. Authors like Tim O' Reilly, Eric Raymond, Jim Hamerly of Netscape, Bob Young of Red Hat Software, just to name a few. Linus Torvalds also weighs in with a great essay about Linux. The essays all discuss different concepts in the Open Source world. Everything from marketing it (as in the Bob Young-Red Hat essay), to the decision to make public the source code for a product(Freeing the Source- The Story of Mozilla), and even a 'histories' of hackers (by Eric Raymond) and UNIX (by Marshall Kirk McCusick), just to name a few of them. I really enjoyed the essays and found it fascinating to learn more about the 'Open Source world.' I have to admit there's something satisfying in knowing that there is 'free' software available for the PC and I have a choice between getting that or having to pay large sums of money to acquire similar software from some huge corporation! A fascinating book about a fascinating subject.
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Overview
Freely available source code, with contributions from thousands of programmers around the world: this is the spirit of the software revolution known as Open Source. Open Source has grabbed the computer industry's attention. Netscape has opened the source code to Mozilla; IBM supports Apache; major database vendors haved ported their products to Linux. As enterprises realize the power of the open-source development model, Open Source is becoming a viable mainstream alternative to...