Arthur Francis Tyde III

A long time ago at Linuxcare, we cooked up a white paper called Linux and Open Source Demystified to try and help people understand what this strange new thing called Linux was. I have enhanced and maintained that document, it’s a great primer for management or anyone else who doesn’t understand how Open Source Software is developed and distributed. It’s certainly no substitute for deeper reading on the topic. You can dive into software licenses, development methodologies, project management principals and so forth in far more depth elsewhere. Authors like Eric Raymond, Richard Stallman, Lawrence Lessig, Martin Fink and Chris Dibona’s collection of essays “Open Sources” are excellent anecdotal reading. However, if you are looking for something quick and informative you might find this paper useful. Obviously, comments, criticisms and re-writes of entire sections are welcomed!