Getting Started with Open Source Development

Open source provides the competitive advantage in the Internet Age. According to the August Forrester Report, 56 percent of IT managers interviewed at Global 2, 500 companies are already using some type of open source software in their infrastructure and another 6 percent will install it in the next two years. This revolutionary model for collaborative software development is being embraced and studied by many of the biggest players in the high-tech industry, from Sun Microsystems to IBM to Intel. The Cathedral & the Bazaar is a must for anyone who cares about the future of the computer industry or the dynamics of the information economy. Already, billions of dollars have been made and lost based on the ideas in this book. Its conclusions will be studied, debated, and implemented for years to come. According to Bob Young, 'This is Eric Raymond's great contribution to the success of the open source revolution, to the adoption of Linux-based operating systems, and to the success of open source users and the companies that supply them. 'The interest in open source software development has grown enormously in the past year. This revised and expanded paperback edition includes new material on open source developments in 1999 and 2000. Raymond's clear and effective writing style accurately describing the benefits of open source software has been key to its success. With major vendors creating acceptance for open source within companies, independent vendors will become the open source story in 2001. Preface Who should read this book? How is this book structured? A book for the community Conventions What’s next? About the authors Contributors Acknowledgements Chapter 1 – Introduction to open source development 1.1 A brief history about open source development 1.2 The evolution of the open source movement 1.3 FLOSS - Free, libre, open source software 1.4 Advantages and disadvantages of open source 1.4.1 Pros 1.4.2 Cons 1.5 Open source trends and perspectives 1.6 Career path 1.7 Exercises 1.8 Summary 1.9 Review questions Chapter 2 – Open source business models 2.1 Open source business models: The big picture 2.2 Dual licensing 2.3 Split open source software / commercial products 2.4 Product specialists 2.5 Platform providers 2.6 Business model relationship to license 2.7 Open source business model and proprietary software 2.8 Summary 2.9 Exercises 2.10 Review questions Chapter 3 – Licensing 3.1 Intellectual property, copyright and licensing: The big picture 3.2 Open source licensing 3.2.1 History of open source licensing 3.2.2 Commonly used open source licenses 3.3 Choosing the right license 3.4 Exercises 3.5 Summary 3.6 Review questions Chapter 4 – Community driven development 4.1 Community driven development: The big picture 4.1.1 Developers' group: Software design and development 4.1.2 Builders' group: Software building 4.1.3 Testers' group: Software Testing 4.1.4 Release management group: Packaging 4.1.5 Release management group: Releasing 4.2 Installation and issue tracking 4.2.1 Installation 4.2.2 Issue tracking 4.3 Exercises 4.4 Summary 4.5 Review questions Chapter 5 – Participating in open source development 5.1 Participating in open source development: The big picture 5.2 Open source communities 5.3 Effective communication 5.3.1 Communication etiquette and guidelines 5.4 Exercises 5.5 Summary 5.6 Review questions Chapter 6 – Starting your own open source project 6.1 Starting your own open source project: The big picture 6.2 Providing the ecosystem for your open source project 6.3 Accepting contributions 6.4 Exercises 6.5 Summary 6.6 Review questions Chapter 7 – Case Study: Contributing to an open source project 7.1 Ruby on Rails and the DB2 module 7.2 The ruby forge 7.3 Submitting a bug Chapter 8 - Case Study: A sourceForge project, Technology Explorer for IBM DB2 8.1 What is the Technology Explorer for IBM DB2? 8.2 A quick overview of the Technology Explorer for IBM DB2 8.2.1 Requirements for setting up the TE 8.2.2 Some basic features and operations of the TE 8.3 You need a key insight to build a project 8.4 You need to support and grow a community 8.5 Make your project easy to adopt 8.6 Understand your business model 8.7 Keep your project current Appendix A – Solutions to review questions Appendix B – Up and running with DB2 B.1 DB2: The big picture B.3 Installing DB2 B.4 DB2 tools B.4.1 Control Center B.4.2 Command Line Tools B.5 The DB2 environment B.7 Connecting to a database B.8 Basic sample programs B.9 DB2 documentation References Resources Web sites Books Contact emails Open source provides the competitive advantage in the Internet Age. According to the August Forrester Report, 56 percent of IT managers interviewed at Global 2,500 companies are already using some type of open source software in their infrastructure and another 6 percent will install it in the next two years. This revolutionary model for collaborative software development is being embraced and studied by many of the biggest players in the high-tech industry, from Sun Microsystems to IBM to Intel.The Cathedral & the Bazaar is a must for anyone who cares about the future of the computer industry or the dynamics of the information economy. Already, billions of dollars have been made and lost based on the ideas in this book. Its conclusions will be studied, debated, and implemented for years to come. According to Bob Young, 'This is Eric Raymond's great contribution to the success of the open source revolution, to the adoption of Linux-based operating systems, and to the success of open source users and the companies that supply them.'The interest in open source software development has grown enormously in the past year. This revised and expanded paperback edition includes new material on open source developments in 1999 and 2000. Raymond's clear and effective writing style accurately describing the benefits of open source software has been key to its success. With major vendors creating acceptance for open source within companies, independent vendors will become the open source story in 2001. Annotation Open source provides the competitive advantage in the Internet Age. According to the August Forrester Report, 56 percent of IT managers interviewed at Global 2,500 companies are already using some type of open source software in their infrastructure and another 6 percent will install it in the next two years. This revolutionary model for collaborative software development is being embraced and studied by many of the biggest players in the high-tech industry, from Sun Microsystems to IBM to Intel. The Cathedral & the Bazaar is a must for anyone who cares about the future of the computer industry or the dynamics of the information economy. Already, billions of dollars have been made and lost based on the ideas in this book. Its conclusions will be studied, debated, and implemented for years to come. According to Bob Young, "This is Eric Raymond's great contribution to the success of the open source revolution, to the adoption of Linux-based operating systems, and to the success of open source users and the companies that supply them." The interest in open source software development has grown enormously in the past year. This revised and expanded paperback edition includes new material on open source developments in 1999 and 2000. Raymond's clear and effective writing style accurately describing the benefits of open source software has been key to its success. With major vendors creating acceptance for open source within companies, independent vendors will become the open source story in 2001 "It all started with a series of odd statistics. The leading challenger to Microsoft's stranglehold on the computer industry is an operating system called Linux, the product of thousands of volunteer programmers who collaborate over the Internet. The software behind a majority of all the world's web sites doesn't come from a big company either, but from a loosely coordinated group of volunteer programmers called the Apache Group. The Internet itself, and much of its core software, was developed through a process of networked collaboration." "This book starts out with A Brief History of Hackerdom - the historical roots of the open-source movement - and details the events that led to the recognition of the power of open source. It contains the full text of The Cathedral and the Bazaar, updated and expanded for this book, plus Mr. Raymond's other key essays on the social and economic dynamics of open-source software development." "Open source is the competitive advantage in the Internet Age. The Cathedral and the Bazaar is a must read for anyone who cares about the computer industry or the dynamics of the information economy. Already, billions of dollars have been made and lost based on the ideas in this book. Its conclusions will be studied, debated, and implemented for years to come."--Jacket 1. The Cathedral and the Bazaar 2. The Mail Must Get Through 3. The Importance of Having Users 4. Release Early, Release Often 5. How Many Eyeballs Tame Complexity 6. When Is a Rose Not a Rose? 7. Popclient becomes Fetchmail 8. Fetchmail Grows Up 9. A Few More Lessons from Fetchmail 10. Necessary Preconditions for the Bazaar Style 11. The Social Context of Open-Source Software 12. On Management and the Maginot Line 13. Epilog: Netscape Embraces the Bazaar 14. Notes 15. Bibliography 16. Acknowledgements