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user-inactivated · 2713 days ago · link · · parent · post: Set the WABAC to 1984: Henry Spencer getopt, and the roots of open source
Eric S. Raymond. He did a lot for the community early on. The Jargon File was a lot of people's introduction to the hacker subculture, The Cathedral and the Bazaar is how we got Mozilla, his article on Python is what gave it the momentum to replace Perl as the scripting language of choice in the unix world. He coined the term "open source" as an alternative to "free software" to make it more corporate-friendly, for better or worse. Then he went full wingnut sometime around 9/11 and now he writes things like scientific racist nonsense and bizarre conspiracy theories about women conspiring to falsely accuse Linus Torvalds of sexual assault. He's become a huge embarrassment.