Eric Raymond

the programmer of Fetchmail, has become one of the most vocal proponents of open source development. His paper comparing proprietary and open development methodologies, The Cathedral and the Bazaar, has become a manifesto for open source development, where a mob of programmers with little centralization yields finished software.

Raymond says such software is richer and more stable than any commercial software he has ever used. David Sims talked to Raymond about the experiences that led him to write the paper.

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Job
Technical director, Chester County InterLink

Education
Undergraduate studies (including some graduate-level courses) in mathematics and philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania.

He has never taken any courses in computer science or software engineering.

Career Highlights
Conceived and edited The New Hacker's Dictionary; Responsible for the maintainence and extention of the GNU Emacs editor; authored a rewrite of the Usenet Netnews software.

Interests (Outside Of Computers)
Science fiction, wargaming, writing, martial arts, firearms, epic poetry, and music;

Holds a World Tae-Kwon-Do Federation 1st Dan Black Belt and has fought in battleline with SCA heavy weapons;

Plays and composes on flute, guitar, hand drums, and voice;