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Interview: Ask Eric Raymond What You Will
Author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar and The Art of Unix Programming, Eric S.Raymond (ESR) has long been an important spokesperson for the open source movement. It's been a while since we talked to the co-founder of the Open Source Initiative so ESR has agreed to give us some of his time and answer your questions. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one question per post.
What are your feelings about protocols and file formats and keeping them open? Where do the efforts to keep protocols and file formats open and accessible to others fall on your list of priorities?
How many roads must a man walk down?
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
What do you think of Slashdot beta?
What's your opinion of the damage done to the Internet by the NSA scandal, and potentially by, the Comcast TWC merger?
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
Did you get to cash out before the crash? After you infamous gloating here, http://news-beta.slashdot.org/story/99/12/10/0821224/esr-writes-on-surprised-by-wealth, inquiring minds want to know.
Do you still deny a link between HIV and the disease known as AIDS?
Do you still blame Alan Turing for his fate? So have you become a total crackpot since September 11th, or was it something that was always sorta brewing under the surface.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
So how annoyed are you that RMS got to do an interview a week before you did.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Getting an update to the Jargon File? Or have you given up on maintaining it?
vi or emacs?
How many Apple products do you have in your house? More to the point, looking backward to Opensource projects trying to produce a desktop/laptop replacement and comparing those projects to proprietary like Apple, does it change your perspective or thinking in any way? Oh and currently, what is your favorite handgun?
Eric, I remember "fondly" what was it 15+ years ago hearing you pontificating in person about gift culture and other sociology that you only had the slightest understanding of and economics that you had zero understanding of. The 'cathedral and the barzaar' has proven to be spectacularly wrong in every meaningful sense and nearly all of your technology predictions related to it have failed. My question is: will you for once have the humility to apologize and admit that you were wrong?
Do you consider the widespread global adoption of the Linux-based Android operating system to be a victory for Open Source, or a danger to the cause?
You often come across as classless and creepy. Do you work at it or does it come naturally?
With all the ups and downs in the industry, are you still surprised? http://www.linuxtoday.com/infr...
it's been almost 20 years since your write tCatB...i gave it a quick read and thought, "well, it *is* dated now, isn't it?" altho i am old enough to remember when its' ideas were pretty cutting edge.
given the current state of software development (ie the ease of use of PHP and the fact that, without a doubt, the cathedral model has won), what would you either like to change or add to your original thesis?
never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
It permeates everything you write: the moral assuredness that You Are Right. I'm all in favor of positing that a position someone takes is the right one -- that's human nature. But your whole "I speak for the hackers" tone, wherein you seem to feel the need to put your views forward as representing others', puzzles me. I give, as a case-in-point, your "Sex Tips for Geeks" as exhibit A, but, really, most any of your writings -- most definitely including your handling of The Jargon File, as well as your stance on homosexuality -- qualify. Care to comment?
As a long time "Unix philosophy" advocate, and in the light of the announced switch to it by Debian, Ubuntu, and basically every other major Linux distribution, what do you think of systemd, and the tight vertical integration it intends to bring as a standard plumbing for (most of) all Linux distributions?
When you wrote "How to ask questions" did you have any idea how big it would be? Or how long it would be relevent?
:)
And how do you feel that your most referenced piece of work is a howto for the clueless?
I don't suppose you have any pointers for breaking into an entry-level managed IT position from a short lifetime as a freelancer (ages 10-23?). Anyways, guess what your book taught me: alias joke="fortune -o | tee $(tty) | sed -e 's/\n/\.\.\./g' | espeak -v en-us+f2 -s 150"
Eric:
Your guide to buying parts for a UNIX system (http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/Unix-Hardware-Buyer-HOWTO/) was very valuable to me a while back (in the 1.0 days, especially); I didn't have much money for a system, but I got to envy the good components and buy or barter piece by piece until I cobbled together a system that would run Linux and X. (Funny how small cases are now, compared to then ... ) What kind of system do you typically run now?
and I see that your hardware guide hasn't been updated in quite a while; is that because nowadays you can be generally sure enough parts will work with Linux / other mainstream and readily available OSes generally?
I'd really like to see another revision, with some "best of breed" modern components, but ones that are known to work out of the box rather than requiring silly workarounds. (Laptops especially tend to suffer quirks that mean slapping on a new OS is harder now than a few years back -- largely the fault of DRM, I think.)
I recall reading (and re-reading on occasion) the Halloween Documents. Have you written anything regarding any other opponents to OSS, or perhaps a look back on them and see what the end effect of Microsoft's attempts did long term?
Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?
One of the issues w/ Open Source has been the freedom to redistribute software downstream - be it just binaries, just source or any combination of the 2. Do you think there are any good ways for software companies who make their software open source to prevent their customers from effectively becoming their competitors - by giving away or selling cheaper what they were sold? Or is the only alternative going for a shared-source approach, as opposed to open source, where redistribution can be explicitly prohibited?
Do you find that your lack of a beard affects your ability to be taken seriously within the Open Source community?
What do you think about shared consensus technology (i.e. bitcoin)? Are they the bazaar while centralized entities (like the Fed) are the cathedrals? Do you think these technologies can be used in other areas in addition to bitcoin and play an important role in the future Internet?
For FREE can't overcome the marketshare of Windows? It defies logic (assuming of course your OPEN SORES stuff is as good, & clearly, based on the results of those shares, it's clearly not).
It's been over ten years. Care to share any more sex tips?
Hi, Eric,
Haven't seen you since Philcon. Yep, back to heckle you....
So, in the light of a) the dot.com bubble, massively under- or non-regulated, and the as close to free market as they could make it economic collapse of '07-08, in what way Libertarianism's goals have prevented the collapse, or moderated its affects on all the folks hit hard by it, as opposed to government intervention, as weak and cut back as early as it was?
And directly related, how can I sue, say, either Lehman Bros or the credit rating agencies, who I learned only a year or two after the crash were *paid* by the companies they rated to rate them? And what would my options on getting a judge to hear the case, with, say, Bank of America on the other side, and their choice of judge?
Say 'hi' to Cathy, btw.
mark
Hi, there is currently some debate about the many eyes theory over on HNews (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7342352) about why it's a fallacious argument, but in my view they have it all wrong, in that a core component of Linus's Law is that the amount of code is directly inverse to the amount of eyes that can hit all of that code (or a significant percentage).
Therefore, in my eyes it is the problem of code bloat that is undermining the open source movement more than anything. For example, the Linux kernel is now at, what, 10mil+ lines of code? That's insane. Minix 3, on the other hand, is at ~15k?
What are your thoughts on this problem?
"It's ok, I'm completely secure as long as my iron is off"
Really?
"...and consequently cuts a wide sexual swathe when he cares to..."
Seriously? Because you look like a fucking troll, dude.
Are you sincere in your vehement G+ rants on Global Warming or is this a clever exploitation of humans "Backfire Effect" (when given evidence against their beliefs, people can reject the evidence and believe even more strongly)?
What particularly made me think this at one point was: "Does that kind of language persuade anybody"?
He's the biggest most pretentious shitbag on the planet. and I'd rather he just went away.
haha, I kid.
Don't you mean GNU/ESR?
haha, I kid again.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
So it seems these days the most effective method of DRM is a network interface, like that used by Facebook, Google, Pinterest, etc... You cannot run your own instance of Gmail or Facebook, and you certainly cannot see or modify the code. At the same time all these companies are pressuring us to push our data into their servers by not supporting or coming up with solutions that let us continue to control/manage our data on our own machines and private networks. What can open source do to stem that tide? What about open source licensing? Could webkit or mozilla have slowed down the encroachment of Chrom/ium and its pro-Google agenda if it had more defensive licensing terms like something similar to the GPL? How do we convince hackers to hack on open-source 'website programs', like an open Gmail or an open Facebook (e.g., Diaspora)?
--"You are your own God"--
Your comments in The Art of Unix Programming about Apple/Mac developers being diametrically opposed to Unix developers in development style and emphases (designing simple, user-friendly interfaces from the outside in) were quite interesting. I am wondering about your perspective on Apple now. My interest is specifically in Apple's contributions to open-source (WebKit and LLVM, chiefly) and your take on those. It seems to me that Apple has done quite a bit to foster an alternative ecosystem to the GNU environment, for instance in FreeBSD's adoption of clang as their default compiler; and also it seems to to me that WebKit has supplanted Gecko as the most widely used browser framework. Curious about your viewpoint here.
Do you think it would be possible to break into those computers that control the nuclear missiles and launch all the missiles like in that movie Wargames and start a nuclear war with the Russians, and if you think it's possible could you like tell me how, and could you like send it to my email and use like super secret encryption so that the NSA won't detect it, and make the instructions really clear so I can follow them. THANKS!
Which is the better battle rifle, an AK-47/74 type or an AR-15/M-16/M-4 type? Please give your criteria as well as your answer.
Bonus: favorite handgun platform/caliber that isn't a .45 1911.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Which editor do you use on a daily basis? Emacs or Vi? :)
If the President of the US gave you direct control over all the US government's use of and influence over AIS, what changes would you make?
Long time Slashdot reader, occasional poster, mostly tired with the noisy, but not very thoughtful crowd here.
Seriously, why are the people who claim to be the most Tolerant ( with a capital "T") seem to think that they need to squash anybody who has an opinion contrary to theirs? ESR is an interesting dude with opinions. If you don't share them, come up with something better, and try and convince others of your ideas.
You raved about Python in the past. Is it still your preferred language/platform for slinging code?
Do you think they need to embrace Open Source to survive? Will they?
Do you still feel that you are an accurate and complete proxy for the linux community? You stated as such about 10 years ago...
And if so why have you thought so over time? If not....what changed?
You many years ago claimed you were a proxy for the web community and I disagreed in public with the IETF. Just a curiosity.
I have changed over the years...perhaps you have grown a bit as well...
-Tom
I would like to know how he feels about being a male and having to 'earn' his procreation right. Especially since, if he had born a women and wanted a child - the ease of enslavement of a male (not always the father) for up to 24 years would be the only hurtle. And she Never Never Never Never a need to show even sanity - never mind the hellish torture males are required to go through today to even be considered. Could and should society do the same for women?
Anyway - it would be good to get his impression of setting up a system where biology alone does not guarantee procreation. How would he implement such a system, and handle those who refuse to follow. Also, does he feel some type of parenting or sanity testing should be standard, as well as at birth or before identification of true father, with required informing of them for adoption option, etc.
Thank you in advance for considering my questions.
Have you managed to get printing to work on Linux yet?
Depending on how you are counting or weighting the count (ie do the number of times 0 and 1 are used in binary/computers count?), I would say that 1 would win against 0, since zero only showed up with the Arabic numbering system. So, releative to the whole history of man, it is a fairly new invention.
Now, to keep on topic, I suppose that I should put this in the form of a question for ESR, so...
What is your opinion of the relatively recent Arabic introduction of the number Zero to the field of mathematics?
McFly777
- - -
"What do people mean when they say the computer went down on them?" -Marilyn Pittman
Your stance on AGW seems to deny the error-correcting features of the scientific method.
So which do you think is more likely: that AGW-deniers are primarily politically-motivated and don't give a crap about simple facts (like the greenhouse effect of CO2) or that the scientific method is deeply flawed?
I know that you do not like GPLv3 due to the fact that you stated that it "punishes" those who use it. The question being, do you think that there is a way to influence large corporations, who have no intention of being a part of the Free Software Movement, without the use of licenses such as GPLv3? Also curious as to whether you have read the comic Everybody Loves Eric Raymond
I've read your manifest, "Why We Fight — An Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto", and I find it brilliant.
My question is: did you work with a real comedian on this, or did you write it yourself?
Thanks
It seems most questions were asked last Tue or Wed, and there's only, about three ESR responses I can find. Am I missing something?