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Alan Cox | |
|---|---|
 Cox atFOSS.IN/2005 | |
| Born | (1968-07-22)22 July 1968 (age 56) Solihull, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Other names | ac |
| Alma mater | Swansea UniversityAberystwyth University |
| Occupation | Programmer |
| Spouse | Telsa Gwynne (d. 2015)[1][2] Tara Neale[3] |
Alan Cox (born 22 July 1968) is a Britishcomputer programmer who has been a key figure in the development ofLinux. He maintained the 2.2 branch of theLinux kernel and continues to be heavily involved in its development, an association that dates back to 1991. He lives inSwansea, Wales, where he lived with his wife Telsa Gwynne, who died in 2015,[1][2][4][5] and now lives with author Tara Neale,[6] whom he married in 2020.[3] He graduated with aBSc inComputer Science fromSwansea University in 1991 and received anMBA from the same university in 2005.[7]
While employed on the campus ofSwansea University, Cox installed a very early version of Linux on one of the machines belonging to the university computer society.[8] This was one of the first Linux installations on a busynetwork and revealed many bugs in the networking code. Cox fixed many of these bugs and went on to rewrite much of the networking subsystem. He then became one of the main developers and maintainers of the whole kernel.[citation needed]
He maintained the 2.2 branch, and his own versions of the 2.4 branch (signified by an "ac" in the version, for example 2.4.13-ac1). This branch was very stable and contained bugfixes that went directly into the vendor kernels.[citation needed]
Cox was once commonly regarded as being the "second in command" afterLinus Torvalds himself, before reducing his involvement with Linux to study for anMBA.[9]
On 28 July 2009, Cox quit his role as theTTY layer maintainer, after disagreement with Torvalds about the scope of work required to fix an error in that subsystem.[10]
Alan was employed by the Linux distributorRed Hat during 1999–2009.[11] Starting from 2011 he was employed byIntel Corporation, but he left both Intel and Linux kernel development in January 2013[12] to care full-time for his wife during a critical period of medical treatment, and returned to both later that year,[13] until taking early retirement at the end of 2019.[citation needed]
He has also been involved in theGNOME andX.Org projects, and was the main developer ofAberMUD, which he wrote whilst a student at theUniversity of Wales, Aberystwyth.[citation needed]
On 31 Oct 2014, Alan Cox announced Fuzix OS, a tiny system V kernel, initially for Z80, on Google+.[14]
Alan Cox used to run Etched Pixels, a model train company that used to produceN gauge kits. However it suffered "a rather more sudden closure", as described by the message that is left on the company's website, caused by a rise in operational cost.[15]
Cox is an ardent supporter of programming freedom, and an outspoken opponent ofsoftware patents, theDMCA and theCBDTPA. He resigned from a subgroup ofUsenix in protest, and said he would not visit theUnited States for fear of being imprisoned after the arrest ofDmitry Sklyarov forDMCA violations.
In January 2007, he applied for a series of patents on "RMS", or "rights management systems".[16] Red Hat Inc., Cox's former employer, has stated (in a document drafted byMark Webbink and Cox himself)[17] that it will not use patents againstfree software projects.[18]
Cox is also an adviser to theFoundation for Information Policy Research and theOpen Rights Group.[19]
Cox was the recipient of theFree Software Foundation's 2003Award for the Advancement of Free Software at theFOSDEM conference inBrussels.[20]
On 5 October 2005, Cox received a lifetime achievement award at theLinuxWorld awards in London.[21]
TheUniversity of Wales Trinity Saint David Awarded Cox an Honorary Fellowship on 18 July 2013.[22]
He received an honorary doctorate from the Swansea University, his alma mater, on 20 July 2016.[7]
after living with cancer for a while she passed away this last Tuesday, 3 November 2015
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