The Cathedral and the Bazaar

So we were supposed to read this article called The Cathedral and the Bazaar. It is about a man named Eric Steven Raymond and his experiences when he first discovers and dabbles into the open source world. One thing he said I think is really important, "too often software developers spend their days grinding away for pay at programs they neither need nor love. But not in the Linux world—which may explain why the average quality of software originated in the Linux community is so high." This definitely shows that open source software is a good place to learn/help with coding. He also has about 20 rules that he threw into his article and each one is an amazing tip to keep in mind while diving into the open source world. 

I also signed up for the mailing list and the IRC for Gnome Empathy. This took exponentially less time than reading the article.