# The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond

5 Hacker News commenters recommended The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People credit this essay with drawing people into free software and say its ideas still matter, though critics call it factually weak, dated and bad on its own merits.

## Why people recommend it

- Still discussed and relevant today (2 comments): "The fact that people are still talking about it today proves it has some kind of worth." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46671116)) "Nothing that was possible then is less possible or less potent now." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48911600))
- Lasting influence on open source (2 comments): "I'm pretty sure that CATB brought more people into FOSS than the GNU manifesto ever did." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46673194)) "The fact that people are still talking about it today proves it has some kind of worth." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46671116))

## What people warn about

- Factually weak and dated (2 comments): "it also didn't hold up very well factually" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46672791)) "It made predictions, some of which turned out to be comically wrong." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46673015))
- Bad on its own merits (3 comments): "It was a bad essay at the time and I don't think you can make a good essay by trying to build off it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46670859)) "I think CATB fails objectively, on its own merits (or lack thereof)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46673637)) "It's just bad on its own merits." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46672860))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Programming as Theory Building by Peter Naur](https://hackerapproved.com/p/programming-as-theory-building.md): 32 recommend
- [Ur-Fascism by Umberto Eco](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ur-fascism.md): 18 recommend
- [Politics and the English Language by George Orwell](https://hackerapproved.com/p/politics-and-the-english-language.md): 14 recommend
- [Right to Read by Richard Stallman](https://hackerapproved.com/p/right-to-read.md): 12 recommend
- [Meditations on Moloch by Scott Alexander](https://hackerapproved.com/p/meditations-on-moloch.md): 11 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond", https://hackerapproved.com/p/cathedral-and-the-bazaar/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).