1999 Free Software Award

For the 1999 Free Software Award, we have received a lot of nominees. They are, in alphabetical order:

• Alan Cox
• Alessandro Rubini
• Alexandre Julliard
• Alfredo
• Andi Gutmans
• Andrew Tridgell
• Apache Software Foundation
• Armed Linux
• AT&T Laboratories Cambridge
• Bernhard Rosenkraenzer
• Bert Tyler
• Bill Gates
• Bill Joy
• Bram Moolenaar
• Brian Behlendorf
• Brian Paul
• Caolan McNamara
• Carsten Haitzler
• Charles Hannum
• Chuck Hagenbuch
• Craig Burley
• Dan Ingalls
• Danny ter Haar
• Darryl Strauss
• Dave Rand
• Debian Project
• DJ Delorie
• Donald Becker
• Donald Knuth
• Doug McEachern
• Dr Douglas Schmidt
• Earl Hood
• Eric Allman
• Fractint Team
• Fred Fish
• FreeBSD Team
• Geoff Harrison
• Guido van Rossum
• James Clark
• Jamie Zawinski
• Jeffrey A. Law
• Jeremy Katz
• Jim Blandy
• Jim Winstead
• Joey Hess
• John Gilmore
• John Ousterhout
• Jordan K. Hubbard
• Jorrit Tyberghein
• Keith Sklower
• Kenji Kojima
• Kirk McKusick
• Kyle Jones
• Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
• Lennart Augustsson
• Marc Lehmann
• Mark Linton
• Matthias Ettrich
• Miguel de Icaza
• Mike Heins
• Mike Karels
• Miquels van Smoorenburg
• MRTG Team
• Nicholas Petreley
• Olivier Fourdan
• Patrick Lenz
• Patrick Volkerding
• Paul Eggert
• Paul Mackerras
• Paul Vixie
• Peter Mattias
• Phil Zimmerman.
• PHP Project
• Ralf S. Engelschall
• Rasmus Lerdorf
• SGI
• Shane Caraveo
• Shawn Hargreaves
• Spencer Kimball
• Stig Bakken
• Theo De Raadt
• Thomas Bushnell
• Tim Berners-Lee
• Tim O'Reilly
• Tim Wegner
• Tobias Oetiker
• Tom Adelstein
• Werner Koch
• Wietse Venema
• W. Richard Stevens
• Zeev Suraski

We want to give this award to a person who has made a great contribution to the progress and development of free software (free as in freedom; see our definition of free software), through activities that accord with the spirit of free software.

Any kind of activity could be eligible—writing software, writing documentation, publishing CDs, even journalism—but whatever the activity, we want to recognize long-term central contributions to the development of the world of free software. “Accord with the spirit” means, for example, that software, manuals or collections of them (on tape or CD) must be entirely free. (Once again, that's free as in freedom; see our philosophy on selling free software.) Work done commercially is eligible, but we want to give awards to individuals, not companies.

People such as Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, and Larry Wall, who have already received this or other awards for their contributions, are not eligible for the Free Software Award.

The award committee members are Bruce Perens, Eric Raymond, Peter Salus, Richard Stallman, and Larry Wall.

Here is a list of prior years' awards.