Eric S. Raymond

Eric Steven Raymond (born December 4, 1957), also known as ESR, is the author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar, (& #34;The Cathedral & the Bazaar") and the current manager of the Jargon File (also known as .). Although with the Jargon File he gained fame as a historian of hacker culture, he became after 1997 a leading figure in the Open Source and Open Source Movement.. Today he is one of its most famous and controversial characters.

Raymond is a Neopagan, an avowed anarcho-capitalist, and an advocate of the right to own and use firearms. He has a strong interest in science fiction. He is an amateur musician and a taekwondo black belt.

Biography

Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1957, suffering from mild congenital cerebral palsy, Raymond lived on three continents before settling in Pennsylvania in 1971. His engagement with hacker culture began in 1976, and he wrote his first open source project in 1982.

He was the coordinator of the Fetchmail email client. He also contributed to the Emacs editing modes and co-wrote portions of the GNU ncurses library. He has written a C implementation of the parody programming language INTERCAL.

His aphorism "With enough eyes, all mistakes are easy to find". Linus Torvalds credits the inspiration for this quote, which he calls "Linus's Law". The main source of this is the book The Cathedral and the Bazaar, which is considered his most important work. In addition, ESR frequently writes essays, many on political issues, which can be found online. He is known more for his avid and persuasive writing style than as a programmer.

After 1997, he became one of the leading theorists of the open source movement and one of the founders of the Open Source Initiative. He took on the role of ambassador for open source in the press, in business, and in popular culture.

For a while he was a controversial blogger, until 2006 when he stopped doing so, resuming it in 2008, citing legal problems as the cause of his silence.

Among his successes, it is necessary to highlight his contribution to the release of the Netscape code to become the Mozilla project in 1998. He is credited with bringing open source to Wall Street circles more effectively than previous supporters.

Criticism

The figure of Eric has been involved in different controversies:

Disputes with hacker community

It was first made famous by the adoption of the Jargon File. Since then, many hackers have been dissatisfied with the centralized control over the project's contributions, some additions and edits it has made, and the deletion of certain terms due to being dated (not common in historical dictionary projects). Those who support Raymond argue that no one has made any case to fork the project and become coordinator of that new version.

Conflicts with members of the free software community

Critics accuse Raymond of hijacking the free software movement for his own personal promotion. He is said to have often criticized other movement leaders and speakers. His disagreement with Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation's stance on the ethics of free software in favor of a more marketable view, has exacerbated pre-existing tensions within the community. He added to the friction by speaking at Microsoft, and it is said that he accepted stock options in exchange for giving VANO Software credibility.

There was also unrest between Raymond and the Linux kernel developers after CML2, an alternative kernel configuration he had developed, was rejected for incorporation.

In addition, his temperament has caused tensions with other open source supporters, such as Bruce Perens. He made public on the Debian mailing lists some messages that he received from Raymond that made him fear for his physical integrity.

Raymond claims to be a core Linux developer, which has drawn him a lot of criticism, because no code of his has ever been accepted into the Linux kernel. His major contribution to his code has been to the fetchmail projects, ncurses, and to the Emacs editing modes. This lack of credentials prompted a response to Richard Stallman's essay "Shut Up and Show Them the Code". Raymond responded to these criticisms in his essay "Take My Job, Please!", where he argues that if someone is qualified and willing to represent open source anywhere in the world, he will follow them.

Non-technical disputes

During the summer of 2003, Raymond exposed his political views on his blog: the IQ difference, terrorism, and the Iraq war on his blog; provoking an avalanche of criticism. He has also been accused of having modified the Jargon File in order to reflect his own views on the war.

He has also expressed the opinion that, unlike the United States of America, Europe will collapse in the near future due to problems related to immigration, especially Muslim immigration.

Books

• 1992, A brief story of hackers
• 1997, the cathedral and the bazaar
• 1999, Colonizing the Noosphere
• 2001, The Magic Caldero
• The vengeance of the hackers
• 2003, El Arte de Programar Unix