Many have marveled at how it is possible to make software as complex as operating systems without handing out paychecks and having strong management. How is it possible to motivate people to do hard and complex work without paying them? And how it is possible to get, up to as many as, hundreds of people to work efficiently together towards a common goal, without strong management? This are question I will explore in this chapter.
To understand FLOSS some knowledge about the philosophise and values common among FLOSS participants and FLOSS leaders are necessary. Then we will look into what motivates FLOSS developers and then on how project in FLOSS are governed and we will look at the FLOSS license. When the general introduction to FLOSS is finished I will present challenges and constraints in the FLOSS development model. Last I will move on to give a presentation of FLOSS in the context of developing countries.