Anatomy of an Open Source Software Project

Linux isn’t a product. Linux is an organic part of a software ecosystem.

—Michael Robinson, Netrinsics

To the casual observer (and some corporate IT decision makers), Linux appears to be a freak mutation — a rogue creature randomly generated by anarchy. How, after all, can something so complex and discipline dependent as a computer operating system be developed by a loosely knit band of volunteer computer geeks from around the world?