Aaron Cayard-Roberts
Cathedral and the Bazaar vs Times articles
9-6-00



        In Cathedral and the Bazaar Eric Raymond describes, in detail, why open source
programming works.  Unlike in the times article, Eric's paper is aimed more at programmers then
the general public although he still writes it in such a way that it can be understood by the
masses.  This is because he focuses on an example of some software that he wrote (fetchmail) that
was an open source project of his.  But instead of just talking about why it was a success he
gives a list of what he calls lessons which act as a nice set of rules to fallow if the reader
wished to replicate his programming method.  The times article from the very start focuses more
on why we may need to use open source programming opposed to the current behind doors business
method.  The times doesn't really give a description about how open source programming works but
rather just states that the source code is "published openly so that other programmers can study,
share and modify the author's work."  In the times article they list several open source programs
that have succeeded in the market place as proof to their readers that it really does work.  Eric
quickly sums up the essence of why it works in one of his lessons by saying "Given enough
eyeballs, all bugs are shallow."
        The Times also probes the question of how is open source programming going to make a
profit.  This is because it would be virtually imposable to replace a $175 billion-a-year
business with a group of people working on free software.  The Times describes how the open
source movement began as a fight "against commercial software was all but immoral", but now is
being proposed mostly because it seems to be producing better programs faster then any other
method.  They still fail to tell the reader anything that would be a solution.   The closest they
come is pointing out that today most of the leading figures in the open source movement "are all
for capitalism, and they welcome investment."  Eric also doesn't come close to talking about how
open source programming could flourish in the world financially.  I think this is a very
important step that must be taken if open source programming is ever going to become the
mainstream software engineering model.