What:What Is Open Source and How Does It Work?
When: 2005
Where: HERE!
Gist:
The text gives a nice summary of Linus Torvalds and his fathering of the Linux Operating System and goes on to give a good description on the Open Source movement and the philosophies surrounding the phenomenon. It also does a decent job of comparing Open Source development to typical commercial development.
The Good:
- A concise and interesting history of the early works of Linus
- Good explanation of why people give away their work without compensation
- Gives a nice summary of different license types
The Bad:
- It is extremely dense and by no means easy to read; especially for something aiming to be an introduction
- The "The Software 'Problem'" drags with lots of allegory that seems to miss the point.
- While the opening history of open source was enthralling, everything else was rather a chore to read
- Who were some big players in the early open source movement? I only ever hear about Linus
- How do I actually go about licensing my software? Do I just add a license to the project?
- Where can I go to contribute to the Linux Operating System? Where is the base kernel code hosted?
Review:
Weber provides a very in-depth introduction to Open Source as a whole that remains fairly accurate even today. It could really go more in depth with the history and the modern licensing types and could ease off a bit with the exasperating description of how corporate development differs from open source development. Despite being a somewhat difficult read it provides a host of information that anyone interested in Open Source development would need to know. 7/10 Would recommend if you like lots of words.
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