A security system is only as secure as its secret. Beware of pseudo-secrets. — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
“We’re proving not only that we can do better software, but that joy is an asset.” — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
To solve an interesting problem, start by finding a problem that is interesting to you. — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
Programmer time is expensive; conserve it in preference to machine time — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
Good programmers know what to write. Great ones know what to rewrite (and reuse) — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
When your language is nowhere near Turing-complete, syntactic sugar can be your friend. — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
Every good work of software starts by scratching a developers personal itch. — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
Today I am one of the senior technical cadre that makes the Internet work, and a core Linux and open-source developer. — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
When you lose interest in a program, your last duty to it is to hand it off to a competent successor. — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
Treating your users as co-developers is your least-hassle route to rapid code improvement and effective debugging. — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
On first blush this looks to be about money, but it is about power. Is power going to go to the information… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
The central problem of C and C++ is that they require programmers to do their own memory management — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
If you treat your beta-testers as if they're your most valuable resource, they will respond by becoming your most valuable resource. — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
Often, the most striking and innovative solutions come from realizing that your concept of the problem was wrong. — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
Any tool should be useful in the expected way, but a truly great tool lends itself to uses you never expected. — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
A software system is transparent when you can look at it and immediately see what is going on. It is simple when… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
Of course, C proved indispensible to the developers of all its alternatives. Dig down through enough implementation layers under any of the… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
The combination of threads, remote-procedure-call interfaces, and heavyweight object-oriented design is especially dangerous... if you are ever invited onto a project that… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
When are programmers happy? They're happy when they're not underutilized - when they're not bored - and also when they're not overburdened… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow (e.g., given a large enough beta-tester and co-developer base, almost every problem will be characterized… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
Ugly programs are like ugly suspension bridges: they're much more liable to collapse than pretty ones, because the way humans (especially engineer-humans)… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
“Another vital factor was the development of a leadership style and set of cooperative customs that could allow developers to attract co-developers… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
“Investors are still thinking through the consequences of reinventing the software industry as one with an explicit focus on service rather than… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
“In a future that includes competition from open source, we can expect that the eventual destiny of any software technology will be… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
“Indeed, it seems the prescription for highest software productivity is almost a Zen paradox; if you want the most efficient production, you… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
Rushing to optimize before the bottlenecks are known may be the only error to have ruined more designs than feature creep. From… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
“The reason this is a serious issue is that both the pool of users and the pool of talent available to be… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
“The history of Unix should have prepared us for what we’re learning from Linux (and what I’ve verified experimentally on a smaller… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
“There is another kind of skill not normally associated with software development which I think is as important as design cleverness to… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
“Amabile goes on to observe that “The more complex the activity, the more it’s hurt by extrinsic reward.” Interestingly, the studies suggest… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
“If (as is generally accepted) over 75% of a typical software project’s life-cycle costs will be in maintenance and debugging and extensions,… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
Complexity control is the central problem of writing software in the real world — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
Smart data structures and dumb code works a lot better than the other way around. — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
When writing gateway software of any kind, take pains to disturb the data stream as little as possible - and never throw… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
Provided the development coordinator has a communications medium at least as good as the Internet and knows how to lead without coercion,… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
“Part of the answer certainly lies in the fact that using software does not decrease its value. Indeed, widespread use of open-source… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
If you have the right attitude, interesting problems will find you. — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
The Wesnoth devs are good but not exceptionally so, and we're weighed down by a crappy implementation language (C++). Nevertheless our productivity, in terms… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
“We’re proving not only that we can do better software, but that joy is an asset.” — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
The workstation-class machines built by Sun and others opened up new worlds for hackers. — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
“If (as is generally accepted) over 75% of a typical software project’s life-cycle costs will be in maintenance and debugging and extensions, then the… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
The combination of threads, remote-procedure-call interfaces, and heavyweight object-oriented design is especially dangerous... if you are ever invited onto a project that is supposed… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
Lisp is worth learning for the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it; that experience will make you a better… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
You cannot motivate the best people with money. Money is just a way to keep score. The best people in any field are motivated… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
“The Linux world behaves in many respects like a free market or an ecology, a collection of selfish agents attempting to maximize utility which… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
“The reason this is a serious issue is that both the pool of users and the pool of talent available to be recruited into… — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
A security system is only as secure as its secret. Beware of pseudo-secrets. — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
Today I am one of the senior technical cadre that makes the Internet work, and a core Linux and open-source developer. — Eric S. Raymond Copy Share Image
