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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."
Someone who makes us want to look for alternatives?
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."
Although the article was very thin on details, I thought that it was worthwhile. It put a new spin on things because the list dealt with who was currently influential, rather than trotting out the old names that we've seen on lists like this for the last fifteen years. I realized after reading the article that I just don't care that much, though. Good thing they chose corporate types to put together this list, since they'll get a charge out of reading it.
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 want to note there are a few who actually contribute code listed. BUT it's important to understand that this top influencers list was actually a byproduct of a survey conducted establishing best practices in open source sales and marketing. Hence the distinctly business slant. This list of top influences has been so remarkably well received that we intend to do it every year. However, in the future survey we will include CTOs and VP of Engs in order to create two categories. Business/Law and engineering. Thanks for the feedback. Please post additional suggestions to the post and we'll try out best to incorporate them.
I'd say he's still fairly influential in the open source community.
I'm very impressed with this list. It's about time the venerable Mr. Error Establishing a Database Connection got his due.
Here is one: Leslie Hawthorn. She organizes Google's Summer Of Code, which has brought thousands of students (myself included) in an active role of participating in various open source projects. It's an absurdly hard task to coordinate thousands of students and mentors each year, to make sure all information, payments, shirts, ... are sent out in time, to organize the mentor summit, and meanwhile try to solve all problems that come up underway. She does it extremely well and I think the open source community can't thank her enough. I honestly don't think there's much more you could do to influence open source.
Go Leslie!
One CS student VS 893 DOS games: Let's play oldies
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."
I think that "Open Source" means something different to me..maybe I'm getting older... Does the whole idea of "Open Source" has been kidnaped by the corporate *bs* and rebranded with a new background, meaning and of course, new corporate "heroes"?
>> 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.
...Darl McBride? I think he is someone who had an effect on the open source industry.
lucm, indeed.
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
"What I'd love to see happen with the Linux desktop is some serious re-thinkng of how a UI should be done."
Hear Hear! Yes, I too am a little disappointed that the "zenith" of Free Software seems to be cloning the look and feel of Windows, which is cloning the Mac, etc.
What about some real ground-breaking stuff - how about a marriage of GUI and Unix-y pipe goodness, where you could connect applications together in a GUI and have them do data flow type work - take the Unix filters approach one (or more) steps further?
What about getting RID of the file selector, and just using the normal file views + drag and drop to open and save files? Drag a file to your word processor, and it opens. Drag the tab from the word processor to a disk, and you save. Drag a section of a file, and you save that section. Drag that section to the desktop, and you save a cut buffer, and you can have as many cut buffers as you want.
Hell, why can't I just drag a file to a printer icon to print it? Why do I have to OPEN the file, then print it?
Let's look at the old OS/2 Workplace shell - let's make every file an object, with methods, selectable via drag or via right click.
Rather than using 3D just to view 2D windows in a glitzy way, let's try to do something meaningful with it.
Yes, some of the above ideas may not work out, but let's at least start exploring them and finding out WHICH ones don't work and which ones do?
Let's not let the "But people are used to the way Windows does things, and thus we cannot change anything away from that paradigm" ball-and-chain keep us from moving forward.
Why can't we tie man pages/info pages and other help into one source, so that we can have the advantages of both being able to search a global help database (apropos printing), being able to view the man pages for a program without running it (man lpr), AND still having those pages be context-linked into the programs?
www.eFax.com are spammers
(..) 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.
I either haven't heard of these people, or I don't care about them. Also, nearly everyone listed is either a CEO or board member of a corporation.
First, the hall of fame:-
"And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates."
-- Deuteronomy, 6:6
And now, the hall of shame:-
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
..and the point of open source is a number of people offering their source code to everyone. These people are the source of "open source", and the names on that list don't resonate with that crowd, hence they are not influential. The list should include notable (and leading) contributors to such project as Firefox, Linux, Net/Open/FreeBSD, OpenOffice, SAMBA, Wine, OpenSolaris, etc. (I am sure I missed a lot of important OS projects, please do forgive me in advance).
It's just another case of epitomizing the managers over the engineers - yes, it's a cliche, but it fits. Managers just can't seem to be satisfied with raking in the most dough - they need the kick of fame, too, even though in the OS world they are the least relevant - remember, cathedral vs. bazaar.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
This is fluff of the type I used to see in WIRED, PCWorld, etc years ago. It is corporate back-patting garbage, of little interest to nerds and real programmers and engineers, many of us still unemployed because the Republicans destroyed America's economy. This is made-up tripe... kings and commissars anointing themselves with badges and awards for pretending to care about those of us below them. The emperor has no clothes. The idea of real and tangible freedom still shines brighter and truer than these corporate priests.
WTF indeed. Let the Slashdot community make a better list. Beginning with some suggestions from TFA (I admit I actually, you know, read it...) comments
Richard Stallman
Linus Torvalds
Eric S. Raymond
Bruce Perens
Tim O’Reilly
Also
Bob Young & Marc Ewing (Red Hat founders) and
Larry Page & Sergey Brin (Google founders)
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.
Firefox has had over a billion downloads - that's not influential??
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
Bram Moolenaar (vim)
Wietse Venema (postfix)
Guido van Rossum (python)
Stephen R. van den Berg (procmail)
Not the smallest programs either. Yeah i'm proud of my country :)