Benevolent Dictator for Life
Benevolent Dictator for Life ( LMA ; English for Benevolent dictator for life is) a term for a person with the senior role in a free software project with an organization structure in which, significantly, in important decisions in fact no alternative to the so-titled person passes by. The term was probably coined by Ken Manheimer in 1995 when he gave Guido van Rossum the title “BDFL” in an email - as a role in a committee that had just been founded on the Python programming language . Older versions of WikipediaArticle traced the term back to a Monty Python sketch, whereupon van Rossum published the original e-mail in order to definitively refute this connection.
The term then found widespread use within the free software scene and was transferred to numerous other people with corresponding roles in other projects. In part, these people give of their own critical awareness of their role even this or similar titles, for which Mark Shuttleworth of Ubuntu Linux, a well-known example gives (as English. Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator for Life , sabdfl - German: "Self-appointed benevolent dictator for lifetime").
However, should a BDFL resign or release itself from its duties, one speaks of a BDFL emeritus .
In his open source and hacker culture essay Homesteading the Noosphere (1999), Eric S. Raymond also interprets the term “benevolent dictator”. Raymond explains how the nature of open source means that such a “dictator” remains altruistic , since if there is too much dissonance, the project can be split up at any time under another management.
Individuals referred to as BDFL
- Richard Stallman : GNU Project
- Larry Wall : Perl
- Linus Torvalds : Linux kernel
- Guido van Rossum : Python (until July 2018)
- Rasmus Lerdorf : PHP
- Alexandre Julliard : WINE
- Theo de Raadt : OpenBSD
- Brendan Eich and Mitchell Baker : Mozilla Foundation
- Adrian Holovaty and Jacob Kaplan-Moss: Django
- Ton Roosendaal : Blender
- Dries Buytaert : Drupal
- Jeremie Miller : Jabber and XMPP
- Patrick Volkerding : Slackware
- Mark Shuttleworth : Ubuntu
- Matthew Mullenweg : WordPress
- Carsten Haitzler : Enlightenment
- Walter Bright : D
- Bram Moolenaar ( Vim )
Individual evidence
- ^ Fadi P. Deek, James A. McHugh: Open source: technology and policy
- ↑ Alchin: Pro Djanog , page 9
- ↑ Article by Guido van Rossum about the origin of "BDFL"
- ↑ Guido van Rossum: Benevolent Dictator for Life ( Memento of August 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 299 kB)
- ^ Foreword by Guido van Rossum to the book Mark Lutz: Programming Python, Volume 10, Page xviii
- ↑ http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~ki/teaching/ss09/aipractical/python1-handout4.pdf
- ↑ Mark Shuttleworth on Launchpad
- ↑ Ubuntu carves niche in Linux landscape , CNET .
- ↑ Frank Roebers, Manfred Leisenberg: WEB 2.0 in the company: Theory & Practice - A course book for managers , page 32
- ↑ Guido van Rossum (@gvanrossum) | Twitter. Accessed January 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Eric S. Raymond: Homesteading the Noosphere . Retrieved August 1, 2008.
- ↑ WIRED: Leader of the Free World - How Linus Torvalds became benevolent dictator of Planet Linux, the biggest collaborative project in history.
- ↑ Roles on Mozilla.org "The ultimate decision-maker (s) are trusted members of the community who have the final say in the case of disputes. This is a model followed by many successful open source projects, although most of those communities only have one person in this role, and they are sometimes called the "benevolent dictator". Mozilla has evolved to have two people in this role - Brendan Eich has the final say in any technical dispute and Mitchell Baker has the final say in any non- technical dispute. " (English)
- ↑ Matt Asay: Open Source's Cult Of Personality Is Dying — Thankfully ( English ) readwrite.com. May 2, 2014. Retrieved June 18, 2015.
- ↑ http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8752
- ↑ https://wiki.dlang.org/People