The cathedral and the bazaar

the Cathedral and the Bazaar (original title: “ in The Cathedral and the Bazaar ”) is a test of Eric Raymond, Co-creator of the term Open source and of which it defends before all quality, which distinguishes it from Richard Stallman, creator of the movement of the Free software, more centered on ethics.

Topic of the test

In the Cathedral and the Bazaar , Eric Raymond reports the development of the operating system Linux and of the software Fetchmail and exposes the basic differences between the development process of this software Open source and that of the software Emacs and GCC :

the author described there the development model of Linus Torvalds by comparing it with a Bazaar : this manner of developing software, by the co-operation of a multitude of developers, is characterized by an adaptability and an impossible flexibility in an organized structure of way hiérarchique ;

Contrary, a hierarchical organization is necessary to the development of a code closed to build what is called a Logiciel owner, but it involves disadvantages of adaptability in particular. Raymond compares it with a structure of Cathédrale.

Later developments of the concept

This test being from now on available in book and on Internet in several languages, the metaphor of the opposition cathedral/bazaar can be found from now on in fields far away from the software, for example in music and approaches a dichotomy between an excessively organized and inflexible approach (Cathédrale) and an apparently disorganized approach and highly flexible device (Bazar).

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