Bruce Perens is a prominent figure in the open source movement and to some extent in the free software movement. He is a former Debian GNU/Linux Project Leader, the primary author of the Open Source Definition, a founder of Software in the Public Interest, founder of the UserLinux project, and co-founder of the Open Source Initiative (OSI). Perens also has a book series with Prentice Hall PTR called the Bruce Perens' Open Source Series. He is an avid ham radio enthusiast and maintains technocrat.net, which he styles 'a more mature forum than Slashdot. He is widely believed to hold the record for the rate of Slashdot upmodding of his comments.

Perens left OSI a year after co-founding it. He explained his reasons in an email titled "It's Time to Talk About Free Software Again" [1] (http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/1999/debian-devel-199902/msg01641.html).

External link

• Bruce Perens' homepage (http://perens.com/)
• Perens' Articles (http://www.perens.com/Articles/)
• "It's Time to Talk About Free Software Again" (http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/1999/02/msg01641.html)
• Free Software Leaders Stand Together (http://www.perens.com/Articles/StandTogether.html)
• A speech given in Japan, June 2003 (http://www.perens.com/Articles/JapanJune2003.txt)