Richard Stallman - Agenda Setters 2009
Name: Richard Stallman
Title: Open software guru
Position: 43 Last year: 30
Why? Continuing to lead the free software fight
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Open software guru, Richard Stallman, is an Agenda Setters regular having made the list numerous times before but he drops a few places in 2009, from number 30 in 2008.
Stallman founded the GNU Project in 1984 to develop a Unix-like software kernel that was available for free - something which is still being worked on. GNU currently runs on the Linux kernel in the form of the GNU/Linux operating system.
Stallman also played an important role in the creation of the Free Software Foundation that runs the annual Software Freedom Day as part of its efforts to raise awareness.
He is regarded by many as having established the free software movement in general and as one Agenda Setters panellist said, Stallman is "the father of free software".
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