Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution

by Chris DiBona, Sam Ockman (Editor), Mark Stone (Editor)

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:

Brian Behlendorf (Apache)
Kirk McKusick (Berkeley Unix)
Tim O'Reilly (Publisher, O'Reilly & Associates)
Bruce Perens (Debian Project, Open Source Initiative)
Tom Paquin and Jim Hamerly (mozilla.org, Netscape)
Eric Raymond (Open Source Initiative)
Richard Stallman (GNU, Free Software Foundation, Emacs)
Michael Tiemann (Cygnus Solutions)
Linus Torvalds (Linux)
Paul Vixie (Bind)
Larry Wall (Perl)

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.

Genres: Technology, Computers, Nonfiction, Computer Science, Programming, History, Software

282 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you imagine a programming genius, what kind of person pops into your mind? Is it someone obsessed with technical minutiae, with no social life, lacking communication skills, who can't be bothered with "IRL" (in real life)? Think again.

This book presents the stories of the real Open Source pioneers in their own words, and you will learn many things that challenge your stereotypes. For example, did you know that Richard Stallman bootstrapped funding for the GNU project by selling his source code on CDs? That Paul Vixie, creator of the open-source program "bind," and Eric Allman, creator of Sendmail, built successful consulting businesses from their open-source projects? That, for a long time, the largest contributor to GCC was a profitable consultancy? These facts will tear down your notions of the greasy computer guy who sleeps under his desk in old sneakers.

[Emanuel Barros]

Quase que aprendi mais sobre OS a ler a troca de emails do que nas aulas lol

[Mrkz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable set of essays which informs about the open source movement, its start and the whys of what open source is what it is today.

really liked it.

[Kevin O'Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is for people who like to go back and revisit the early days of Open Source. When this was written, Google didn't even appear, Yahoo was the world's #1 web site, and Netscape was the fresh-faced challenger upsetting the established computing order. Much of it involves long explanations of things like licenses that are probably well-known to people today. But it can be interesting to revisit this history, particularly if you were not paying that much attention when it first happened. For example, understanding what Cygnus was doing before it got bought by Red Hat can be enlightening, and now that some people want to get away from the GCC it may even be relevant. The book is a series of essays written by the participants, and explain arcana such as why we use RFC's (and why are they called that, anyway?) For that reason, I would not call it a book to sit down read through cover-to-cover. This would be a great book to dip into when you had 20-30 minutes to spare, however, and didn't want to start on a long novel.

There is a follow up volume called Open Sources 2.0 which I have started reading, but it also is one I dip into, so it may be some time before I finish it.

[Cristian-Alexandru Staicu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Foarte interesanta cartea pentru cei care vor sa afle mai mult despre comunitatea open source (inceputuri + primii ani). Cartea este gratis la adresa: http://oreilly.com/openbook/opensourc..., iar pentru cei interesati va pot trimite o versiune pentru kindle pe care am generat-o pe baza site-ului. Recomand Appendix A: http://oreilly.com/openbook/opensourc... - o cearta ca la usa cortului intre Linus Tosvald si Andy Tanenbaum (extrem de amuzant :))

[Joe Vaughn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic set of essays from the big guns. Sometimes quaint (linux v minix flamewar), sometimes remarkably accurate (perl scripting power), others wildly flawed (ESR and Win 2k scrapping).

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contains some really interesting essays about open source (e.g. Larry Walls "Diligence, Patience and Humility"). There's the "Linux is obsolete" discussion in the appendix too.