<story><title>The Cathedral and the Bazaar (1999)</title><url>http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>tptacek</author><text>Just taken on its merits, I think a case can be made that this is one of the most overrated pieces of technical writing of the last 25 years. What&amp;#x27;s true in it isn&amp;#x27;t interesting (&amp;quot;the importance of having users&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;release early release often&amp;quot;) and what&amp;#x27;s interesting isn&amp;#x27;t true (&amp;quot;Linus&amp;#x27;s law&amp;quot; being perhaps the most notorious example). Much of the insight is taken directly from Brooks. The whole piece has as its backdrop the development of Fetchmail, which is not a well-regarded piece of software.&lt;p&gt;What&amp;#x27;s notable about Cathedral is its timing; it did capture the zeitgeist of what was an important moment in the computing field, the moment where we transitioned from 386bsd-style hobby projects to an industry run on free and open source software. But Raymond isn&amp;#x27;t the reason why any of that happened, and much of his description of that moment is faulty; the rest of it is just a retrospective of the engineering decisions involved in the writing of a midlist mail processing utility (fetchmailrc syntax, password encryption, the now-largely-irrelevant distinctions between MDAs and MTAs).&lt;p&gt;Even the high-level organizing notion of &amp;quot;cathedrals&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;bazaars&amp;quot;, which should have been a lay-up, hasn&amp;#x27;t really proven out.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Cathedral and the Bazaar (1999)</title><url>http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>dang</author><text>Related (surprisingly little over the years) - others?&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Cathedral and the Bazaar (1999)&lt;/i&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=35829361&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=35829361&lt;/a&gt; - May 2023 (2 comments)&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;On Management and the Maginot Line&lt;/i&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=33314682&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=33314682&lt;/a&gt; - Oct 2022 (27 comments)&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Cathedral and the Bazaar&lt;/i&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=16328219&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=16328219&lt;/a&gt; - Feb 2018 (1 comment)&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Cathedral and the Bazaar (2000)&lt;/i&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=12198625&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=12198625&lt;/a&gt; - July 2016 (1 comment)&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Eric Raymond&amp;#x27;s &amp;#x27;The Cathedral and the Bazaar&amp;#x27; Turns 19&lt;/i&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=11754279&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=11754279&lt;/a&gt; - May 2016 (57 comments)&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Revisiting the many eyes theory&lt;/i&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=8416597&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=8416597&lt;/a&gt; - Oct 2014 (1 comment)&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;A Second look at the Cathedral and the Bazaar (1999)&lt;/i&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=1222945&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=1222945&lt;/a&gt; - March 2010 (1 comment)&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Cathedral and the Bazaar&lt;/i&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=162376&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=162376&lt;/a&gt; - April 2008 (2 comments)</text></comment>