Alan Cox at FOSS.IN/2005

Alan Cox (born 1968) is a computer programmer heavily involved in the development of the Linux kernel since its early days (1991). Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... The FOSS.IN logo, created by Harikrishnan C FOSS.IN is a Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) conference, held in India. ... In computing, a programmer is someone who does computer programming and develops computer software. ... The Linux kernel is a Unix-like operating system kernel. ...

Involvement in the Linux kernel

While employed on the campus of University of Wales, Swansea, he installed a very early version of Linux on one of the machines belonging to the university computer society. This was one of the first Linux installations on a busy network, and revealed many bugs in the networking code. Cox fixed many of these bugs, and went on to rewrite much of the networking subsystem. He then became one of the main developers and maintainers of the whole kernel. The University of Wales, Swansea was founded in 1920 as University College, Swansea, the fourth college of the University of Wales, following the report of the Haldane Commission into University Education in Wales. ... It has been suggested that Criticism of Linux be merged into this article or section. ... Computer networks redirects here. ...

He maintained the 2.2 branch, and his own versions of the 2.4 branch (signified by an "ac" in the version, for example 2.4.13-ac1). This branch was very stable and contained bugfixes that went directly into the vendor kernels. He was once commonly regarded as being the "second in command" after Linus Torvalds himself, before reducing his involvement with Linux to study for an MBA.^[1] His informative and friendly comments have guided many programmers on the Linux kernel mailing list. Alan is employed by Red Hat and lives in Swansea, Wales with his wife, Telsa Gwynne. Since then he has also been involved in the GNOME and X.Org projects. Linus Benedict Torvalds ( ; born December 28, 1969 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish software engineer best known for initiating the development of the Linux kernel. ... Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a masters degree in business administration, which attracts people from a wide range of academic disciplines. ... The Linux kernel mailing list (LKML) is the main electronic mailing list for Linux kernel development[1][2], where majority of the announcements, discussions, debates, and flame wars over the kernel take place[3]. Many other mailing lists exist to discuss the different subsystems and ports of the Linux kernel... Red Hat, Inc. ... For other places with the same name, see Swansea (disambiguation). ... This article is about the country. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The X.Org Foundation Open Source Public Implementation of X11 (the XOrg Server) is the official reference implementation of the X Window System. ...

He was the main developer of AberMUD, which he wrote whilst a student at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. AberMUD was the first popular internet-based MUD. The first version was written in B by Alan Cox for an old Honeywell mainframe and opened in 1987. ... Affiliations University of Wales, AMBA, ACU, Universities UK, HiPACT Website http://www. ...

Activism

Alan Cox is an ardent supporter of programming freedom, and an outspoken opponent of software patents, the DMCA and the CBDTPA. He resigned from a subgroup of Usenix in protest, and said he would not visit the United States for fear of being imprisoned after the arrest of Dmitry Sklyarov for DMCA violations. Software patent does not have a universally accepted definition. ... The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a controversial United States copyright law which criminalizes production and dissemination of technology that can circumvent measures taken to protect copyright, not merely infringement of copyright itself, and heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet. ... The Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA), known in early drafts as the Security Systems and Standards Certification Act (SSSCA), and sometimes derisively called the Consume But Dont Try Programming Anything bill, is a proposed US law which would prohibit any kind of technology which can be... The USENIX Association is the Advanced Computing Technical Association. ... Dmitry Sklyarov (Дмитрий Скляров) (born December 18, 1974) is a Russian computer programmer best known for his 2001 run-in with American law enforcement over software copyright restrictions. ...

In January 2007, he proposed a series of "RMS", or Rights management systems.^[2] It is said that he has filed a patent for Digital Rights Management (DRM). Red Hat, Alan's employer, has stated that it will not use patents against free software projects [3], so it is believed that these patents try to prevent future use of DRM technologies ^[3] some think that these patents cover a part of the built-in DRM implementation of Vista, so that Vista would infringe these patents to a certain extent ^[4]. Digital Rights Management (generally abbreviated to DRM) is an umbrella term that refers to any of several technologies used by publishers or copyright owners to control access to and usage of digital data or hardware, and to restrictions associated with a specific instance of a digital work or device. ... Red Hat, Inc. ... Clockwise from top: The logo of the GNU Project (the GNU head), the Linux kernel mascot Tux the Penguin, and the FreeBSD daemon Free software is a term coined by Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation[1] to refer to software that can be used, studied, and modified without...

Alan is also an adviser to the Open Rights Group ^[5]. The Open Rights Group (ORG) is a UK-based organisation that hopes to preserve digital rights and freedoms by serving as a hub for other cyber-rights groups campaigning on similar digital rights issues. ...

Awards

Cox was the recipient of the Free Software Foundation's 2003 Award for the Advancement of Free Software at the FOSDEM conference in Brussels. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a non-profit corporation founded in October 1985 by Richard Stallman to support the free software movement (free as in freedom), and in particular the GNU project. ... The Free Software Foundation Award for the Advancement of Free Software is annually presented to a person who has made a great contribution to the progress and development of free software, through activities that accord with the spirit of free software. ... Jimbo Wales speaking at FOSDEM 2005 Since 2001, the Free and Open source Software Developers European Meeting (commonly known as FOSDEM) is an annual 2-day event hosting talks, tutorials, and stalls for the free software community. ... Nickname: Map showing the location of Brussels in Belgium Coordinates: Country Belgium Region Brussels-Capital Region Founded 979 Founded (Region) June 18, 1989 Government  - Mayor (Municipality) Freddy Thielemans Area  - Region 162 km²  (62. ...

On October 5, 2005, Cox received a lifetime achievement award at the LinuxWorld awards in London. October 5 is the 278th day of the year (279th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The 2006 LinuxWorld trade show at the Boston Convention and Exposition Center. ...

Notes

Richard Matthew Stallman (often abbreviated as RMS) (born March 16, 1953) is a software freedom activist, hacker, and software developer. ... The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a non-profit corporation founded in October 1985 by Richard Stallman to support the free software movement (free as in freedom), and in particular the GNU project. ...

External links

Free software Portal

• Alan Cox: The maintainer of production version of the Linux kernel. Ch. 5 of ebook Open Source Pioneers, includes a lot of difficult to find interviews.
• Interview on his biography
• His diary in Welsh
• LWN interviews Alan Cox
• Interview with Alan Cox - January 15, 2002
• LugRadio interview
• Linux Format interview - August 2005
• Cathedrals, Bazaars and the Town Council - 1998-10-13
• Ogg audio recording of a talk in Limerick, Ireland 2006-05-13, and a transcript of an excerpt, about GPLv3