Who do you admire in the computer industry and why?

[stuartw101]

Ive got to write an essay on someone but i dont really admire anyone, im sure there are alot of people who revolutionised computing in some way, but i dont know of them. Im basically looking for some ideas and then will do some research about them. Is it possible for you to explain a little more about the person and why you admire them.

I really should admire someone as im really into computers and currently studyign a computing course at uni, but my knowledge isnt amazing in terms of the history of computing so im taking this as an opportunity to learn more about people in the industry.

Thanks.

 

[Becky]

I wrote an article a little while ago called A Brief History of Technology - it isn't hugely detailed, but it should give you an idea of the main revolutionary changes concerning computing and technology. From those, you should be able to find out who was behind them with a quick Google search. I hope this helps!

 

[Reefsmoka]

Bill Gates for his guerilla pimping tactics in getting his paper. Hes paid the cost to be the boss .

 

[muckshifter]

Bill Gates for his guerilla pimping tactics in getting his paper. Hes paid the cost to be the boss .

Ohho, that's been done to death.

Here is one ... Edmund Berkeley, don't you know who he was? ... do a google.

Good luck.

 

[floppybootstomp]

George Boole.

Link

Link

 

[usalug]

Easy question for me
Linus Torvalds

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds

as for Bill Gates..... reminds me of a schoolyard bully.......

 

[floppybootstomp]

Aye, imo Bill Gates is more of an agressive businessman than a computer genius.

Way back in the 70's, a friend of mine used to get phoned by a certain American named William Gates to help him iron out a few problems with this DOS thingie he was working on.

Back then, they were both just nerds. Now, Gates is the richest man in the world whilst Tim just earns a living.

Funny old world, innit?

And Linus Torvalds would still be a non-entity if wasn't for good ole Georgie Boole, that man was the instigator.

 

[ChristopherP]

I admire Bill Gates for nothing more than windows. I know its far from perfect, but i like it, and it's popular. And thats what counts.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I admire Bill Gates for nothing more than windows. I know its far from perfect, but i like it, and it's popular. And thats what counts.

And where did Billy Boy get his ideas for Windows from?

Apple Mac.

He's a leech. A very successful leech I grant you but as I said, his skills are in marketing, not code.

I don't like Bill Gates mostly for one reason.

And that's because although he has oodles of cash, he got no dress sense whatsoever

 

[usalug]

And Linus Torvalds would still be a non-entity if wasn't for good ole Georgie Boole, that man was the instigator.

As would Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, IBM, Novell, Sun, and the list goes on............. although, in honesty, if it hadn't been done by Boole, it would have been done by someone else eventually.

......
Linux Torvalds started a revolution in computing, that is in it's infancy now.... while I don't worship the man like a god or anything like that, I very much admire the fact that he (unlike Gates) has decided it's better to give than recieve........ He appears to be very much a common man, with an un-common knack for creating code.

Boole would be a good canidate for a report though

 

[floppybootstomp]

You could do a case study on Evesham - how they take money from innocent customers and give nothing in return. They should be avoided at all costs.

Ok, ok, I think you've made your point

This thread is not for complaining in, we're talking significant figures who shaped current computing scene, not poor suppliers.

Any more posts of a similar nature from you will be deleted, as much as I sympathise with how you feel.

 

[floppybootstomp]

As would Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, IBM, Novell, Sun, and the list goes on............. although, in honesty, if it hadn't been done by Boole, it would have been done by someone else eventually.

Agreed, but how long would it have taken before somebody else 'discovered' logic? An interesting thing to think about.

......
Linux Torvalds started a revolution in computing, that is in it's infancy now.... while I don't worship the man like a god or anything like that, I very much admire the fact that he (unlike Gates) has decided it's better to give than recieve........ He appears to be very much a common man, with an un-common knack for creating code.

Again, agreed, Linus deffo one of the good guys in my book.

Boole would be a good candidate for a report though

I think so I can remember studying this in '84 and was really quite fascinated.

It still amazes me that everything we do (in computing) is basically based on two states - 'on' or 'off'.

 

[ChristopherP]

In my opinion, he took something and improved it, not copied it.

I far prefer Windows to Mac...

But i admire him for his success also... he done good for the world, and he donates alot to charities also... so thats good.

And where did Billy Boy get his ideas for Windows from?

Apple Mac.

He's a leech. A very successful leech I grant you but as I said, his skills are in marketing, not code.

I don't like Bill Gates mostly for one reason.

And that's because although he has oodles of cash, he got no dress sense whatsoever

 

[floppybootstomp]

In my opinion, he took something and improved it, not copied it.

I far prefer Windows to Mac...

But i admire him for his success also... he done good for the world, and he donates alot to charities also... so thats good.

I also prefer Windows to Mac.

I also quite like Win XP.

But.

Don't be suckered in by MS PR. They have been responsible for some of the most ruthless,underhanded and downright dirty handed business practices ever seen.

And all with Gates' full knowledge. Do you not remember the recent slap on the wrist they got from US courts?

And what he gives to charity doesn't even dent the daily interest returned on his fortune.

And before you say it, no, I'm not jealous, I honestly couldn't live with myself with all that money, although I'd be quite happy with 1% of it, I'm not a total pleb/doofus/fool

 

[bodhi]

I hate bill gates bashing, he was very clever to take a percentage of the money from DOS instead of a flat fee and he is a good business man as well as a "nerd". I for one dont have a problem with him, nothing wrong with sucess!!

 

[ChristopherP]

If he's so rich why does he charge £100 for a copy of XP pro that can only be used on ONE pc

I know MS dosent charge that, but its got to be near that... companies cant make much on it.

he would still be a multibillionaire if he charged £20 for it, and there would be way less piracy, and it would set an example. imo. and yeah, his dress sense sucks.

But he done good. XP is awesome, can't wait to see Vista.

 

[usalug]

Ummm perhaps you should read U.S vs Microsoft by Joel Brinkley and Steve Lohr. It might enlighten you to the way M$ really works. I live in the USA, and I'm 100% for capitalism, don't get me wrong, but I'm also 100% against monopolies.

Some people that have definately contributed to the computing world would include :

Brian Behlendorf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Behlendorf
He was a primary developer of the Apache Web server

Marshall Kirk McKusick http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Kirk_McKusick
famous for his extensive work on BSD

Bruce Perens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Perens
Bruce Perens is a prominent figure in the open source movement and to some extent in the free software movement.

Eric Steven Raymond http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Raymond
he became a leading figure in the open source movement, and is today one of its most famous (and controversial) characters.

Richard Matthew Stallman, a.k.a. RMS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman
s the founder of the free software movement, the GNU project, and the Free Software Foundation. He is also a renowned hacker, whose major accomplishments include GNU Emacs, the GNU C Compiler, and the GNU Debugger. He is also the author of the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or GPL), the most widely-used free software license, which pioneered the concept of the copyleft.

Larry Wall http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Wall
programmer, linguist, author, is most widely known for his creation of the Perl programming language in 1987.

Guido van Rossum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_van_Rossum
is a computer programmer who is best-known as the author of the Python programming language.

John Ousterhout http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ousterhout
is the original force behind the scripting programming language Tcl and the platform-independent GUI toolkit Tk, which he developed when he was professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson
In 1969, while at Bell Labs, Thompson and Dennis Ritchie were the principal creators of the Unix operating system. Thompson also wrote the B programming language, a precursor to Dennis Ritchie's C programming language, currently one of the world's most commonly used programming languages.

James Gosling http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gosling
He is generally credited as the inventor of the Java programming language in 1994. He did the original design of Java and implemented its original compiler and virtual machine. For this achievement he was elected to the United States National Academy of Engineering.

Steve Bourne http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Bourne
is a computer scientist, most famous as the author of the Bourne shell (sh), which remains the standard command line interface to Unix.

The list goes on and on and on ...................

 

[stuartw101]

Looks like im going to do some research about Tim Berners-Lee and then start my essay. Thanks for all your suggestions, if you have any information about Tim Berners-Lee please let me know as i need as much information as possible.

Thanks