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Summary

What is the status of the Free and Open Source Software (F/OSS) revolution? Has the creation of software that can be freely used, modified, and redistributed transformed industry and society, as some predicted, or is this transformation still a work in progress? Perspectives on Free and Open Source Softwarebrings together leading analysts and researchers to address this question, examining specific aspects of F/OSS in a way that is both scientifically rigorous and highly relevant to real-life managerial and technical concerns. The book analyzes a number of key topics: the motivation behind F/OSS-why highly skilled software developers devote large amounts of time to the creation of "free" products and services; the objective, empirically grounded evaluation of software-necessary to counter what one chapter author calls the "steamroller" of F/OSS hype; the software engineering processes and tools used in specific projects, including Apache, GNOME, and Mozilla; the economic and business models that reflect the changing relationships between users and firms, technical communities and firms, and between competitors; and legal, cultural, and social issues, including one contribution that suggests parallels between "open code" and "open society" and another that points to the need for understanding the movement's social causes and consequences.

Foreword	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Introduction	p. xvii
Motivation in Free/Open Source Software Development
Why Hackers Do What They Do: Understanding Motivation and Effort in Free/Open Source Software Projects	p. 3
Understanding Free Software Developers: Findings from the FLOSS Study	p. 23
Economic Perspectives on Open Source	p. 47
The Evaluation of Free/Open Source Software Development
Standing in Front of the Open Source Steamroller	p. 81
Has Open Source Software a Future?	p. 93
Open Source Software Development: Future or Fad?	p. 107
Attaining Robust Open Source Software	p. 123
Open and Closed Systems are Equivalent (That Is, in an Ideal World)	p. 127
Making Lightning Strike Twice	p. 143
Free/Open Source Processes and Tools
Two Case Studies of Open Source Software Development: Apache and Mozilla	p. 163
Software Engineering Practices in the GNOME Project	p. 211
Incremental and Decentralized Integration in FreeBSD	p. 227
Adopting Open Source Software Engineering (OSSE) Practices by Adopting OSSE Tools	p. 245
Free/Open Source Software Economic and Business Models
Open Source Software Projects as "User Innovation Networks"	p. 267
An Analysis of Open Source Business Models	p. 279
The Allocation of Software Development Resources in Open Source Production Mode	p. 297
Shared Source: The Microsoft Perspective	p. 329
Law, Community, and Society
Open Code and Open Societies	p. 349
Legal Aspects of Free and Open Source Software	p. 361
Nonprofit Foundations and Their Role in Community-Firm Software Collaboration	p. 393
Free Science	p. 415
High Noon at OS Corral: Duels and Shoot-Outs in Open Source	p. 431
Libre Software Policies at the European Level	p. 447
The Open Source Paradigm Shift	p. 461
Epilogue: Open Source outside the Domain of Software	p. 483
References	p. 489
List of Contributors	p. 513
Index	p. 525
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

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