Some social factors of software engineering: the maverick, community and technical practices
HSSE '05 Proceedings of the 2005 workshop on Human and social factors of software engineering
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The Linux development effort is often seen as a particularly successful example of an Free/Open Source software development process. And vet, the Linux effort has been much less successful at attracting non-technical users. Instead of explaining Linux's successes and failures as due to novel social or technical arrangements, or because of a particular historical moment, I claim that both Linux's success at maintaining coordinated development and its failure to attract a wider audience are related to what I have termed the pressure of openness—a contradictory yet productive relationship between the need to maintain coordinated development activity and the need to remain open to new development directions and new participants. Linux can thus be explained in relation to the complex combination of social, technical, and organizational features that make up the Linux collective.