Insightful view of the Open Source phenomenon
I had a chance to read Eric Raymond's essay, "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" about a year ago and was fascinated by it. I hadn't given much thought to the concept of "open source" products. When I found out there was a book out with related essays, I knew I had to read it because I found the concept fascinating.
Raymond doesn't dissapoint in this book, which is a series of his essays about Open Source and its most popular product, the Linux Operating System. The essays include "A Brief History of Hackerdom" (which gives a capsule history of hackers and takes great pains to explain the difference between hackers and the much-hated "crackers"); the main essay, and essays titled Homesteading the Noosphere and The Magic Cauldron, that further describe the growth of this phenomenon.
An interesting book and Raymond gives his audience an idea of how Open Source really got started, the amazing amount of creative minds in the "hacker culture," and his thoughts on what the future holds for it.
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