I first came across the ‘manifesto’ (to steal a term from Seth Godin) that is ‘The Cathedral & The Bazaar’ a couple of years after it was first was published on the web in 1997 and it played a part in helping stimulate my interest in Open Source and Linux. However, at the time I was a bit like a kid in a candystore with computer languages and all things webbie and I sometimes failed to follow up on things, unfortunately (for me) that included the other essays of Eric Raymond.
A few months ago I was reminded of them by a friend, and immediately ordered the book.
While the original essay remains as seminal as ever, the other manifestos Raymond puts forward in this collection are every bit as informative. In fact a few years on from my initial headlong rush into technology that came with joining CERN, it is ‘The Magic Cauldron’ that now speaks most to me. I wish I had been able to quote from its lucid pages when attempting to convince the clients of my last company (Axomic) that a linux based intranet was a good thing.
Quote from ‘Open Source and Strategic Business Risk, The Magic Cauldren’
“The brutal truth is this: when your key business processes are executed by opaque blocks of bits that you can’t even see inside (let alone modify) you have lost control of your business. You need your supplier more than your supplier needs you—and you will pay, and pay, and pay again for that power imbalance. You’ll pay in higher prices, you’ll pay in lost opportunities, and you’ll pay in lock-in that grows worse over time as the supplier (who has refined its game on a lot of previous victims) tightens its hold.
Contrast this with the open-source choice. If you go that route, you have the source code, and no one can take it away from you. Instead of a supplier monopoly with a chokehold on your business, you now have multiple service companies bidding for your business—and you not only get to play them against each other, you have the option of building your own captive support organization if that looks less expensive than contracting out. The market works for you.
The logic is compelling; depending on closed source code is an unacceptable strategic business risk. So much so that I believe it will not be very long until closed-source single-vendor acquisitions when there is an open-source alternative available will be viewed as actual fiduciary irresponsibility, and rightly grounds for a shareholder lawsuit.”
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