This paper traces the history of the development and use of the Open Source TeX typesetting program. This software was developed over three decades and came into competition with a variety of open-source and proprietary alternatives. TeX was an early and very successful open-source project that imposed its standards in a particularly competitive environment and inspired many advances in the typesetting industry. While developers working under proprietary and open-source licenses responded to different sets of motivations, this did not mean they could abstract from each other's development decisions. The development of each type of software evolved in a symbiotic way. The strengths and weaknesses of both development methods were starkly revealed in the process. A pattern of semi-altruistic open-source development emerged, whereby developers considered non-developers' needs in order to make TeX more attractive to a broader audience and more competitive vs. proprietary alternatives. Self-use motivations for development were complemented by direct and indirect network effect considerations. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the long-term welfare effect of the emergence and growing importance of open-source development methods.
%0 Journal Article
%1 Gaudeul:2006
%A Gaudeul, A
%D 2006
%J SSRN eLibrary
%K OpenSource
%T Do Open Source Developers Respond to Competition?: The (La)TeX Case Study
%X This paper traces the history of the development and use of the Open Source TeX typesetting program. This software was developed over three decades and came into competition with a variety of open-source and proprietary alternatives. TeX was an early and very successful open-source project that imposed its standards in a particularly competitive environment and inspired many advances in the typesetting industry. While developers working under proprietary and open-source licenses responded to different sets of motivations, this did not mean they could abstract from each other's development decisions. The development of each type of software evolved in a symbiotic way. The strengths and weaknesses of both development methods were starkly revealed in the process. A pattern of semi-altruistic open-source development emerged, whereby developers considered non-developers' needs in order to make TeX more attractive to a broader audience and more competitive vs. proprietary alternatives. Self-use motivations for development were complemented by direct and indirect network effect considerations. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the long-term welfare effect of the emergence and growing importance of open-source development methods.
@article{Gaudeul:2006,
abstract = {This paper traces the history of the development and use of the Open Source TeX typesetting program. This software was developed over three decades and came into competition with a variety of open-source and proprietary alternatives. TeX was an early and very successful open-source project that imposed its standards in a particularly competitive environment and inspired many advances in the typesetting industry. While developers working under proprietary and open-source licenses responded to different sets of motivations, this did not mean they could abstract from each other's development decisions. The development of each type of software evolved in a symbiotic way. The strengths and weaknesses of both development methods were starkly revealed in the process. A pattern of semi-altruistic open-source development emerged, whereby developers considered non-developers' needs in order to make TeX more attractive to a broader audience and more competitive vs. proprietary alternatives. Self-use motivations for development were complemented by direct and indirect network effect considerations. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the long-term welfare effect of the emergence and growing importance of open-source development methods.},
added-at = {2008-07-09T19:10:59.000+0200},
author = {Gaudeul, A},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/28021725b95c8d657c6d364f68ca73db0/torstenschuenemann},
date-added = {2008-07-08 19:28:15 +0200},
date-modified = {2008-07-08 19:28:15 +0200},
id = {77},
interhash = {99bc6ed51f26ff6598ea8504941bcdb9},
intrahash = {8021725b95c8d657c6d364f68ca73db0},
journal = {SSRN eLibrary},
journal1 = {SSRN eLibrary},
keywords = {OpenSource},
l3 = {papers://4FFA6A6B-1A96-4388-956B-475C0631ECF6/Paper/p77},
timestamp = {2008-07-09T19:11:00.000+0200},
title = {Do Open Source Developers Respond to Competition?: The (La)TeX Case Study},
ty = {JOUR},
year = 2006
}