Slashdot Mirror
The Most Influential People In Open Source
mmaney writes "As part of its 2009 open source best practices research, MindTouch asked C and VP level open source executives who they thought are the most influential people in the industry today. The list is ranked by the effect these individuals have had on the open source industry. Over 50 votes from executives in Europe and North America were cast. There were a few surprises from outside of the open source industry. Steve Ballmer got a mention because of his negative remarks on the open source industry and its subsequent positive impact. Vivek Kundra was mentioned because of his contributions to the industry inside the US Federal Government. Notably absent, however, are any influential women."
Relatedly, Matt Asay (who is also on the list) writes about the decreased need for open-source evangelism, noting that several people on the list are there "not because they're open-source cheerleaders, but because they have helped vendors and customers alike understand how to get the most from open-source investments."
How can these people be "influential" when nobody's ever heard of them?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
So, no votes from anyone who's actually, you know, writing any open source code?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Relatedly, Matt Asay (who is also on the list) writes about the decreased need for open-source evangelism
If anything, raving fanbois screaming that Microsoft is "teh suck" is doing more to hurt open source than help.
I'm a vegetarian. I don't preach to people about it. I don't need other people to follow my path to make me feel good about what I do but I always welcome those who are interested. I find that screaming at people for eating meat is annoying and counter productive. Instead I'd have much more success coming off as a rational being and helping people who want to be vegetarians become vegetarians. Thrusting my ideals on someone who is happy where they are at is only going to make them more at odds with me and my ideals.
They only way you're going to get someone who is happy with Windows or OSX to go Linux is to get apps that are Linux only that they just can't live without. That isn't happening today. These apps don't exist.
I'd say he's still fairly influential in the open source community.
Well, thanks, but I don't see how my experience with NeXTSTEP and the Mac make me any kind of hero, let alone an "open source hero". I've given a little bit of code away in my time, but it's not like it's any kind of mission I'm on.
As for GnuStep, it's a nice try, but once Apple and NeXT merged and the danger of NeXTSTEP vanishing altogether was alleviated, that really took the wind out of GnuStep's sails. The Linux crowd doesn't care about it, and the Mac crowd doesn't need it.
they should be focusing on replicating the NeXT/Apple experience.
I have to disagree with you on that. Trying to match any existing system is shooting too low. I remember when Visix was very proud of bringing "the Mac level of UI to UNIX" back around 1987 or so. I interviewed with them, and told them that unless they were looking to substantially exceed what the Mac offered, they shouldn't bother.
What I'd love to see happen with the Linux desktop is some serious re-thinkng of how a UI should be done. Trying to make it like Windows is tragic, and trying to make it like the Mac is just never going to be good enough.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
>> What I'd love to see happen with the Linux desktop is some serious re-thinkng of how a UI should be done.
Why? The UI is more or less a solved problem, sort of like the controls of a car. Yes there are some minor innovations here and there. Someone adds some taskbar effects or a nicer way of moving through open windows, or someone adds a steering wheel control for the radio. These little tweaks will go on for a long time, but the basic idea of a desktop is a solved problem, and doesn't need re-inventing. Just like the car, where our standard design is almost perfect for most people, and all of the radical attempts at revamping it have failed because they offer no significant advantage.
The desktop UI isn't going anywhere until we move away from our current interfaces. The next major step will happen when we're no longer tied to a keyboard/mouse combo. Until then why whinge about the state of the UI? It fits the application just fine.
The UI is more or less a solved problem, sort of like the controls of a car.
If you believe that, then by all means, enjoy what you can buy today. Heck, I know people who still live in EMACS.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Most end users do not even bother filing bug reports or feature requests, let alone writing any code or discussing issues on mailing lists.
Palm trees and 8
I would also nominate PJ at Groklaw, for applying FOSS principles and practices to IP law.
C|N>K
Hate to break it to you, but organizing thousands of developers is nothing new in open source. Look at the big Linux distros, and how their leaders keep everyone in line and organized. You think GSoC is difficult to organize? Try managing Debian or Fedora, where you have to deal not only with your own people and finances, but also with upstream maintainers and the weird decisions they make. GSoC involves keeping all the different, largely unrelated projects in line; a Linux distro supervisor needs to make sure that all the packages in the distro will play nicely with each other. Distro maintainers also have to deal with users, who sometimes make absurd demands and are insulted when they do not get what they want (e.g. the people who demand that Fedora ship with SELinux disabled by default).
Not to make Leslie Hawthorn's task seem easy, but I would hardly call her the most influential open source leader out there.
Palm trees and 8
(..) but unfortunately the Open Source community of programmers has been replaced by a conglomeration of companies who are exploiting Open Source as a tool to further sales.
And any true FOSS supporter should welcome that: whatever the motive of folks employing open source, as long as they do, they further general adoption of it.
Commercial exploitation of FOSS means incorporation into products, means equipment that adheres to standards (vs. closed protocols). It also means software reuse, less re-inventing of the wheel, and (ultimately) cheaper products because the manufacturer didn't waste money re-inventing those wheels. And products that are more valuable to end-users because of their open, commodity, standards-compliant properties. And if we're lucky, perhaps some promotion of the "share me" vs. the "it's mine!" philosophy, if end-users see that FOSS is being used.
That is all fine with me, even if the original motivation was cold, hard greed.
Take a quick look at the people in the article:
http://www.mindtouch.com/blog/2009/10/27/most-influential-people-in-open-source/
Now take a quick look at the people on their board (scroll to bottom).
http://www.mindtouch.com/About_MindTouch
Notice any two names and pictures in common, like say the top two ranked people in the article?
Now, I guess you could think "Wow! these guys must really be a great company since they have the TOP TWO OSS influencers on their board!". A less naive person might have some other thoughts on that.
This article is little more than marketing masquerading as news. It was written by the companies sales guy. The reason why nobody has ever heard of these people is that the article isn't about actual people of influence, it's an attempt to sell a product.
AccountKiller
Linus Torvalds (Linux creator)
True, and his kernel development supervision keeps him on the list even today.
Eric S. Raymond (Open Source advocate)
Influential in his own mind maybe. Serious proponents of OSS gave up listening to that fruitcake years ago, I'd estimate at some point after the racism, but before the terrorist paranoia.
Bruce Perens (started Debian Linux and coined the term "Open Source"
Debian was started by Ian Murdock (hence the -ian part; the deb comes from his wife's name). And "open source" was coined long before OSI took credit for it.
You could probably make a better argument that Perens deserves to be on the list through his lobbying, especially on the international stage.
Richard Stallman (Free Software Foundation spiritual father)
Well more important than its spiritual father, he's its president, so I think that gets him on the list.
Be a bit fair. The names you listed are all old. If they are going to do a anual listing of importent OSS people, then they should at least aim for current/new people in that year. That means it'll most likely be people you never heard of, people that did something namable that year. No point reinterating what everyone already knows, after all.
Please note that the subject title for the comment was "Influential Women" as in here is a woman that could(should) be on this list. The Mindtouch blog even noted itself that
No the GP wasn't saying that Leslie is "the most influential open source leader out there" instead they were offering her as an example of an influential woman in the open source movement.
Or to put is simply - you failed at reading comprehension.
I think Pamela Jones (PJ) of Groklaw should be mentioned.
3 things about computers: they're alive, they're self-aware, and they hate your guts.
"Open Source" was specifically created to be a non-threatening, business friendly euphemism for "Free Software". It has hardly been "kidnapped" by the corporate *bs*, since it was their own creation and has always belonged to them.
That's exactly what Windows PowerShell is designed to accomplish.
Put down the bong, dude.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Firefox has had over a billion downloads - that's not influential??
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
Well, she's still been more influential than just about half of this list anyway...
Copyright infringement is "piracy" in the same way DRM is "consumer rape"