Commentary: Raymond?

How much of Raymond's historical account is first person? Where was he during the various periods he discusses and what was he doing?

Brief biography of him

• In 70s: He started to involve with hacker culture.
• In 80s: He contributed to free software project, such as fetchmail and Emacs.
• In 90s: He wrote and edited books, such as "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" and "Jargon File".

-- Mikio. 12:37, 3 Set 2008.

Eric S Raymond's piece shows how the open source community is continuing to grow and gain momentum at immense speed. It's interesting how the article ends with the section on public exposure to the internet. Raymond is wholeheartedly convinced of the open source business model, and his overwhelming rosy conclusion echos the suspicious optimism of the dot com bubble. So in a sense, Raymond is outlining the stance of the *community* of which he is a part, but underlines his specific motivations as a "hacker." Beginning the article with a section about "Real Programmers" and ending with the public adoption of the internet highlights the hard work of other dedicated programmers that made his work possible. It reiterates his hacker mentality of effectively using code that's already been written, while crediting and appreciating those who put in the effort.

--Purcebr 12:06, 3 Sep 2008 (EST)