Most Influential People In Open Source (Community Edition)
After reading “Most Influential People In Open Source” and completely disagree, I decided to conduct my own research.
Please read the post mentioned above. Then, write 3 names, in order of importance, of the most influential people in Open Source. Please include one short sentence for each to justify your choice.
I will compile the results later this week.
Linus Torvalds
Tom O’Reilly
Alan Cox
Why I picked these three: these guys are PAYING ATTENTION, and when they are riled up about something, people PAY ATTENTION to them!
Why I didn’t pick Richard Stallman: because I see him as being the most influential person in Free Software
Why I didn’t pick myself: I’m too humble
Linus Torvalds, for making open source a real choice;
Mark Shuttleworth, for making a open source project usable by the masses;
Dries Buytaert, for creating an open source model that involves both developers and users with the same enthusiasm.
No mention for Richard Stallman, because of his negative influence that actually prevents people from using open source rather than encouraging it.
Mark Shuttleworth – Making Linux something for the masses when before it was reserved for the ultra geek
Brian Aker – For his contributions towards MySQL and the Drizzle project
Linus Torvalds – For the same reason as Giuseppe Maxia
and I second Maxia’s quote on Stallman. He alienated a huge portion of the audience of open source with his views and opinions. I respect them but don’t agree with it.