Product: 0596001088

The cult-like status of this book and its Web antecedents in the Linux community isn’t surprising. But even for those of us who aren’t staunch open-source partisans, it’s a surprisingly well-argued (if a bit scattered) and concise collection.
Taken as a whole, the book makes a series of good business cases for when opening the source code to software is appropriate and potentially profitable – as well as maximally efficient. I was pleased that Raymond acknowledges that open source is not always the best way to go, even while noting that it will probably be more prevalent over time.
Raymond’s fervour about open source shows through, particularly late in the book, but it doesn’t detract from the largely objective analyses he makes – so his arguments carry force.
Worth reading for anyone who’s a programmer, a hacker, or interested in the politics of the software business. Or anyone else, for that matter.
Rating: 4
0596001088
Count: 15