A good portion of last night's meeting dealt with software development
models in business, primarily with how to use FOSS effectively in
a commercial environment.
For those interested in learning about this concept for the first time,
or for a refresher course (as I'm about due for a brush-up myself),
I recommend reading the book "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" by Eric S.
Raymond. The book is dedicated to explaining the workings of and
reasoning behind the different software development models, and the
advantages and disadvantages of each.
The popular essay "The Magic Cauldron," which Jeff mentioned last night,
is Chapter 5 in the book.
The book description is here:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cathbaz/
with a sample chapter ("The Magic Cauldron," as a matter of fact).
It looks like the full text of the book is also available on esr's site
here:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/
I can't recommend reading this book enough. The basic premise is:
- Open Source won't cure all the world's software ills.
- There is still a place for commercial, closed software in the market
- Open Source *is*, however, a viable option in many more places than
it is currently implemented.
- While Open Source is good for much more than simply a buzzword to
get your friends and industry contacts, it should not be practiced
to the exclusion of something that will better benefit your
company/project/etc.
Some of these points contradict some of Richard Stallman's views, and at
times the Open Source and Free Software movements (which are very
different at times) seem to be mutually exclusive. However, anyone
looking to make a buck or just have fun with Linux/BSD, or the FOSS
world in general, can benefit from reading both "Cathedral" *and*
Stallman's book, "Free as in Freedom."
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/freedom/
And also, thanks again to Jeff and crew for demonstrating and explaining the
ideals and goals behind Nevadix!
Tim Hammerquist
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