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Benevolent Dictator For Life (BDFL) is a title given to a small number of open-source software-developmentleaders, typically project founders who retain the final say in disputes or arguments within the community.The coinage originated in 1995 with reference to Guido van Rossum, creator of the Python programming language.^[1][2] Shortly after van Rossum joined the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) it appeared in a follow-up mail by Ken Manheimer to a meeting trying to create a semi-formal group overseeing Python development and workshops.^[1]

BDFL should not be confused with the more common term for open-source leaders, « benevolent dictator« , which was popularized by Eric Raymond’s essay « Homesteading the Noosphere« .^[3] Among other topics related to hacker culture, Raymond elaborates on how the nature of open source forces the « dictatorship » to keep itself benevolent, since a strong disagreement can lead to the forking of the project under the rule of new leaders.

Examples of people sometimes referred to as Benevolent Dictator For Life

• Guido van Rossum, creator of Python^[4][5]
• Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux^[6]
• Larry Wall, the originator of Perl
• Patrick Volkerding, the creator of Slackware^[7]
• Mark Shuttleworth calls himself the « Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator For Life », or SABDFL, and the Ubuntu community often uses this name to refer to him^[8][9]
• Adrian Holovaty and Jacob Kaplan-Moss, for Django^[10][11]
• Dries Buytaert, founder and leader of the Drupal project^[12][13]
• Ryan Dahl, the creator of Node.js^[14]
• Steve Coast, the founder of OpenStreetMap^[15]
• Tony Locke, creator of Chellow^{[citation needed]}
• Rasmus Lerdorf, the creator of PHP^[16]
• Theo de Raadt, the creator of OpenBSD^{[citation needed]}
• Rich Hickey, the creator of Clojure^{[citation needed]}
• Ton Roosendaal, the creator of Blender (software)^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ ^ab Guido van Rossum (July 31, 2008). « Origin of BDFL ». Retrieved 2008-08-01.
2. ^« Python Creator Scripts Inside Google ». www.eweek.com. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
3. ^ Eric S. Raymond. « Homesteading the Noosphere ». Retrieved 2008-08-01.
4. ^« The Four Hundred–Next Up on the System i: Python ». www.itjungle.com. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
5. ^ Guido van Rossum « Benevolent dictator for life ». Linux Format. 2005-02-01. Retrieved 2007-11-01.^{[dead link]}
6. ^ Ingo, Henrik (2006). « Benevolent dictator ». Open Life: The Philosophy of Open Source. ISBN978-1-84728-611-6. Retrieved 2011-03-05.
7. ^« Slackware’s « About » page ».
8. ^« About Ubuntu: Governance ». Canonical Ltd. Retrieved 2011-03-05.
9. ^« Ubuntu founder defuses rumors of impending Microsoft deal ». arstechnica.com. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
10. ^« Django committers ».
11. ^« DjangoCon Article ». Retrieved 2008-09-09.
12. ^« Dries set to be married! ».
13. ^« Urban Dictionary: BDFL ».
14. ^« Proposed Node v2 API Specification Draft ».
15. ^« BDFL and moderation ». opengeodata.org. Retrieved 2010-08-11.
16. ^ Marneweck, Jacques (2006-02-28). « Jacques Marneweck’s Blog: Rasmus’s no-framework PHP MVC framework ». Powertrip.co.za. Retrieved 2011-06-01.

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