"The Magic Cauldron" is an essay by

Eric S. Raymond Eric Steven Raymond (born December 4, 1957), often referred to as ESR, is an American software developer, open-source software advocate, and author of the 1997 essay and 1999 book ''The Cathedral and the Bazaar''. He wrote a guidebook for the ...

on the open-source economic model. It can be read freely online and was published in his book 1999 book, ''

The Cathedral and Bazaar ''The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary'' (abbreviated ''CatB'') is an essay, and later a book, by Eric S. Raymond on software engineering methods, based on his observations of the Linux ...

''.

The essay analyzes the economic models that Raymond believes can sustain an open-source project in four steps: * It first analyzes what the author sees as classical myths about the cost refund in software development and tries to present a game-theory based model of the supposed stability of open-source cooperation. * Secondly, it presents nine theoretical models that would work for sustainable open-source development: two non-profit, seven for-profit. * Thirdly it states a theory to decide when it is economically interesting for software to remain closed. * Finally, it examines some mechanisms that, according to Raymond, the market invented to fund for-profit open-source development (like patronage system and task markets).

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* 1999 essays Computer science books Books about free software O'Reilly Media books Software development philosophies Open Publication License-licensed works Works about the information economy Essays by Eric S. Raymond {{essay-stub

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