Eric S. Raymond (2004) _The Art of UNIX Programming_, Boston: Addison-Wesley.

maybe add to software culture section - or introduction:

Developed through an engineering tradition, Unix undoubtedly has a culture - a technical culture but also a conceptual and political culture. Eric S. Raymond's book  _The Art of UNIX Programming_ (2004; making explicit reference to Donald Knuth's _The Art Computer Programming_, 1981 [1968]) is testament to this and the principle that a better cultural understanding of technology or indeed software will lead to better implementation. Fundamental to this of course is the Unix tradition of open source as a development method based on a belief in 'shared culture' (exemplified by the 'success' of Linux).  
[note: 'Unix' is a trademark of The Open Group, but in general refers to 'any operating system that is either genetically descended from Bell Labs's ancestral Unix code (of 1969) or written in close imitation of its descendants' (Raymond 2004: xxix).] 
The history of Unix reveals a pattern of positive development when tied to open source principles whereas 'attempts to proprietarize it have invariably resulted in stagnation and decline' (Raymond 2004: 51).

Open source or 'peer-review-intensive development' underpins the Unix approach but it is also open in the sense that its API (application programming interface) works across different computer platforms. It is the 'closest thing to a hardware-independent standard for writing truly portable software' (Raymond 2004: 8). In addition, it underpins the internet protocol of TCP/IP and most servers rely on Unix, as well as underpinning the production of free software. In supporting multiple program interfaces and flexibility, it does not obfuscate but on the contrary it provides access to the hidden depths of code behind GUIs. Furthermore it follows a folk tradition in being developed 'bottom-up' in that 'expertise' comes from the culture itself exemplified in transparency and discoverability; the engineer's philosophy of 'keep it simple, stupid!' (Raymond 2004: 25; alluding to Einstein's soundbite: 'Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler', in Raymond 2004: 295). Re-using existing code is part of this working principle - avoiding unnecessary work and taking an economic even ecological approach. Raymond describes this in the following terms:
'This attitude gives the best return both in the "soft" terms of developing human capital and in the "hard" terms of economic return on development investment.' (2004: 375) 
Clearly this underpins the open source impulse in the most general economic sense regardless of ideological position - which is its strength and part of the problem in as much as it contests and affirms capital investment on human and economic levels.