Still can’t believe it but that’s been a whole 5 years since I am into open-source, with my first repo being a mere numerical system converter and my latest repos are frameworks, libraries, production bots, and full stack sites. It’s not too much meat, but you gotta admit it’s not bare bones already.

Nevertheless, it’s only in recent months that there were question marks flying through my head: why opensource is still alive or at least why it is so popular even among commercial companies, Linus Torvalds — mainly a Linux creator or it's opensource which is his main gift to humanity and what RMS has to do with all of it.

So I’ve skimmed through hundreds of different pages, 5 books, and a few essays on the history of open-source software. And while yeah, I’ve searched for answers to my specific questions and made notes for myself as I always do, this time something different hit me. It became evident to me that my thoughts mean nothing without a proper reader and a proper critic, so take it or leave it, I am going online with this information.

Questions

1. Why opensource is so goddamn successful? (even if it's free)
2. Without GPL and RMS there would be no open-source. Or would it?

Sources

1. A beautiful thoughts on “Hardware, Software, and Infoware” by Tim O’Reilly
2. Mythical Man-Month, The: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition by Frederick Brooks Jr
3. The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric Steven Raymond
4. The Art of UNIX programming by Eric Steven Raymond
   this one is not so related directly to open source,
   but very valuable to me personally
5. Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution
6. Open Sources 2.0: The Continuing Evolution
7. Strategy Letter V by Joel Spolsky