The power of open source software (OSS) is immense and offers pretty much unlimited effective techniques to program easier. Open source does not stand for access to the source code only. It is something much bigger than this. It offers freedom to anyone skillful enough to modify and improve what has to be improved in the original software engineer’s work and deliver the highest quality code. The must-know principles of the open-source software development process include transparency, participation, collaboration, community, meritocracy, rapid prototyping, and, last but not least, sharing.
Yet, the most important aspect of OSS is the fact that it is beneficial not just to professional programmers but to people who don’t necessarily have a degree in computer science. In this regard, instead of presenting with the well-known, widely established conventional belief that proclaims that the march of innovation is led by nothing else but the vision of general as well as personal wealth, OSS provides a way to approach software development with better wisdom and convenience that are built on the premise of writing clean code to create functional and effective computer systems.
What is more, since a huge part of the Internet itself is based on a number of open source software projects – like the Apache Web server application or the Linux operating system – any person who uses the Internet can take advantage of any open source project. And one of the best aspects of it is that there are projects in all programming languages with new code samples released every day.
There are many books filled with practical advice and /////functional examples////// on open source software and each one of them successfully manages to convey a comprehensive compilation of the best possible sides of using OSS. But here we offer the best 5 works which are extremely essential for everybody who wants to take the plunge to try this type of software engineering and is eager to learn the ins and outs of the open source community.
Еssencial open source books
This book is a pure example of how a scholarly yet easy-to-absorb book covers specifics of a somehow complicated subject through simple examples. The author, Steve Weber, artfully chronicles how software engineers have developed open-source mechanisms over the years. His provocative and engaging work depicts the general principles, goals, and effects of this method of the open-source movement. Everyone who is interested in finding out about the impacts of OSS on the IT sector should spend some time reading The Success of Open Source.
Find the right books to educate yourself on the ever-growing world of open-source software.
Learn the difficult topics and practices of open-source software development through simple examples.
Published in 2005, Open Sources 2.0: The Counting Evolution is a classic book as it features a collection of profound, deep, and thought-provoking essays combined with pragmatic guidance written by top software developers in the present day. The papers offer practical examples of the ways in which open source is gradually slipping into other areas different from the high-technology-oriented ones. Moreover, the essays cover themes related to the developing world and its attempts to start using open source and become part of the already technologically advanced sites.
Jared Duval craftily examines the interconnections between all sorts of crises varying from political to environmental and details how such relationships can lead to the application of new efficient tools to tackle different public challenges and common issues. Using the stories of governmental and non-governmental leaders who strive to find workable solutions to a volume of difficulties, Duval conveys a message to the public, thus inspiring people to build a much better future. To create such a future one must use the existing code the open source community provides and become a better programmer.
Are you offering and trying to sell open source to management? This book might just be for you then, as it becomes the ultimate weapon that you need. Open Source for the Enterprise gives readers not only an outline of technologies and their use but also lists what skills are required so that one can manage technological products the proper way and design object-oriented software. Additionally, in order to facilitate the implementation of open source in the modernized IT world, Dan Woods and Gautam Guliani address and answer various questions in the book, including: How will using open source transform an IT department?; What skills are needed to use open source?; How will this enhance software maintainability and agile software craftsmanship?; What sorts of open source projects are appropriate for IT departments at the beginner, intermediate, advanced, and expert levels?; and many others.
This piece is concerned with some of the most complicated topics relevant to the IT sector but all subjects are demonstrated through adequate and easy-to-understand bits that not only a software developer can understand. At the beginning Karl Fogel points out the most pivotal dimensions of project management, thus disclosing particular tools that are used in many free-of-charge software projects and operating systems such as Wikis, IRC, version control, bug tracking, and integrated development environments (IDEs). Accepted as one of the best guidance in the market on design practices, information security, and how to design flexible software, the book also exhibits and uses as examples already tried methods and directions to ease the work of the pragmatic programmer and to urge them to combine their skills and knowledge toward a joint purpose.
Take advantage of the free information–that is available to you through open-source software.
Partake in what the open-source community has to offer by understanding where and how to find it through the right book on the matter.
If you have stumbled across any other useful book on open-source software, share your opinion and let us know why it was useful to you.
