Leading Free Software and Open Source protagonist, self-employed, Berkeley, USA

Bruce Perens is a leader in the Free Software and Open Source community. He is creator of the Open Source Definition, the manifesto of the Open Source movement in Software. He's founder or co-founder of the Open Source Initiative, The Linux Standard Base, Software in the Public Interest, and No-Code International. Perens released his first Free Software program, Electric Fence, in 1987. He is creator of Busybox, which has spawned its own development community and is part of many consumer devices.

Perens was vice president at Sourcelabs from 1995 to 1997.

Perens was series editor of the Bruce Perens' Open Source Series of books with Prentice Hall PTR publishers, which published 24 titles. Perens spent two years with HP as Senior Global Strategist for Linux and Open Source, and was president of Linux Capital Group, a venture fund that specialized in Linux.

Recommended reading

"The Emerging Economic Paradigm of Open Source"
"State of Open Source Message: A New Decade For Open Source"