The Cathedral and the Bazaar.

Written by Eric S Raymond; in his initial days of getting into the Linux community is an introduction to what he as programmer felt in regards to this new community that he had the pleasure of experiencing and divulging into.

He (Raymond) quotes "Linux overturned much of what I thought I knew". As an experienced and seasoned programmer, Raymond was taken back by the depth of knowledge and the way things were done in the Linux community. Raymond furthermore quotes "I believed that the most important software (operating systems and really large tools like Emacs) needed to be built like cathedrals, carefully crafted by individual wizards or small bands of mages working in splendid isolation, with no beta to be released before its time." To Raymond software development was always built like a cathedral, very carefully by specially trained, educated, and experienced individuals working alone or in groups to release a software with no beta testers in sight.

But what he (Raymond) experienced in the Linux community was something completely different. In this community people from anywhere and from all walks of life could contribute ideas towards the development of a software. Raymond drew parallels of a busy bazaar to the Linux community; just like in a bazaar where people from different walks of life come together to shop, the Linux community were people from many different regions and perhaps even occupations coming together to bond and eventually to create a whole new way of developing software.

What further surprised Raymond about all of this is the fact that amongst all the chatter, the unorganized clutter that this would be translated as to the cathedral builders (a.k.a professional software developers of the time) the Linux community actually prevailed and was still able to produce results besides all the unorganization. Raymond quotes " The fact that this bazaar style seemed to work, and work well, came as a distinct shock. As I learned my way around, I worked hard not just at individual projects, but also at trying to understand why the Linux world not only didn't fly apart in confusion but seemed to go from strength to strength at a speed barely imaginable to cathedral-builders."

The Cathedral and the Bazaar is Raymond's way of making the reader understand the transition he as a programmer underwent during his initial experience with Linux. It shaped a whole new way of analyzing software development strategies and resolving problems for Raymond.