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Eric S. Raymond

From Alfawiki
Eric Steven Raymond
Born
Eric Steven Raymond

(1957-12-04) December 4, 1957 (age 68)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Other namesESR
Occupation(s)Software developer, author, open-source advocate
Years active1980–present
Known forThe Cathedral and the Bazaar, Jargon File editor, Open Source Initiative co-founder
Notable workThe Cathedral and the Bazaar, The Art of Unix Programming, The New Hacker's Dictionary (editor)

Eric Steven Raymond (born December 4, 1957), commonly known as ESR, is a prominent American software developer, advocate for open-source software, and author of the seminal 1997 essay and subsequent 1999 book The Cathedral and the Bazaar. He created a comprehensive guide for the Roguelike title NetHack and was the editor of the Jargon File, which was published in the 1990s as The New Hacker's Dictionary.

Early life

Raymond was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1957. During his early years, he resided in Venezuela before moving to Pennsylvania in 1971. Born with cerebral palsy, this condition played a significant role in steering him towards a career centered on computing.

Career

From 1980 through 1985, Raymond worked on proprietary software development. In 1990, he took initiative to revive the then-dormant Jargon File, although some critics contended that his revisions changed its original essence.

In 1996, he took over maintenance of the open-source email client initially known as "popclient," which he renamed Fetchmail. His experiences with this project informed his influential 1997 essay "The Cathedral and the Bazaar", which championed the "bazaar" style of open-source development. First delivered at Linux Kongress, this essay became a cornerstone text for open-source methodologies and was later expanded into a full-length book published in 1999. It notably impacted major initiatives such as the release of Mozilla’s source code and was cited by industry leaders as a key validation of open development models.

Building on this momentum, Raymond co-established the Open Source Initiative (OSI) in 1998, acting as its public representative until he resigned from the presidency in 2005. In 2020, he was removed from OSI communication channels due to violations of its Code of Conduct.

In the same year as OSI’s founding, Raymond made public leaked internal Microsoft documents—referred to as the "Halloween Documents"—which revealed Microsoft's concerns regarding the quality of open-source software.

Between 2000 and 2002, he created Configuration Menu Language 2 (CML2) intended for Linux kernel configuration; however, this proposal was declined by kernel maintainers who preferred gradual modifications.

His 2003 publication, The Art of Unix Programming, delves into programming paradigms and toolsets. Beyond writing, Raymond has contributed to open-source gaming projects such as The Battle for Wesnoth and continues to participate in initiatives like NTPsec, a secure alternative to the traditional Unix Network Time Protocol utility.

Moreover, he developed utilities including cvs-fast-export for converting CVS repositories into Git format and "reposurgeon," designed to manage Apache Subversion repositories effectively.

Views on open source

Raymond is credited with formulating Linus's law, inspired by Linus Torvalds, which states: "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow." This concept was first introduced in his work The Cathedral and the Bazaar.

He has refrained from extending the "bazaar" model beyond software development to avoid diluting its relevance when advocating for open-source software.

Raymond champions open-source principles through pragmatic, technical, and utility-focused reasoning rather than ethical arguments. While leading the Open Source Initiative, he prioritized emphasizing product excellence over moralistic appeals and critiqued proponents like Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation for their less effective ethical persuasion strategies.

In a 2008 essay, Raymond articulated support for programmers’ rights to release proprietary licenses: "if a programmer wants to write a program and sell it, it's neither my business nor anyone else's but his customer's what the terms of sale are." He also expressed deep personal opposition to proprietary software based on adverse experiences encountered during his development career.

Political views and activism

Raymond is affiliated with the Libertarian Party and actively supports gun rights. He has publicly backed the open source firearms organization Defense Distributed, describing them as "allies of liberty" and endorsing their efforts to disrupt government and criminal control over force, particularly as 3D printing technology becomes more widespread.

In 2015, Raymond accused the Ada Initiative along with other women in technology groups of attempting to ensnare male open source figures through false allegations, advising men to avoid solitary interactions with such activists.

Raymond has sparked controversy by asserting connections between male homosexuality in the 1970s and AIDS, and has justified police profiling of young black males as a logical practice rather than an act of racism. A progressive initiative called "The Great Slate" successfully raised upwards of $30,000 by collecting donations from technology professionals in exchange for withholding publication of Raymond's statements. Thomas Ptacek from Matasano Security, who helped fundraise for the campaign, remarked on the frequent public criticism directed at Raymond’s remarks.

Religious views

Raymond identifies himself as a neo-pagan.

Bibliography

Books

Online writings

See also

Additional resources

  • Byfield, Bruce; "Eric S. Raymond: The Rise and Fall," Linux Magazine, 2015-12-22

External links

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