Brian Jhan Fox (born 1959) is an American computer programmer and free software advocate. He is the original author of the GNU Bash shell, which he announced as a beta in June 1989.[1] He continued as the primary maintainer of bash until at least early 1993.[2][3] Fox also built the first interactive online banking software in the U.S. for Wells Fargo in 1995,[4] and he created an open source election system in 2008.

Free Software Foundation

In 1985, Fox worked with Richard Stallman at Stallman's newly created Free Software Foundation.[5] At the FSF, Fox authored GNU Bash,[6] GNU Makeinfo, GNU Info, GNU Finger, GNU Echo[7] and the readline[8] and history libraries.

He was also the maintainer of GNU Emacs for a time, making many contributions to the software which was created and maintained for the GNU Project between 1986 and 1994.[4]

Open source election systems

In 2008, Fox collaborated with Alan Dechert and Brent Turner to create a completely open source election system. The system was coded together with Parker Abercrombie, and demonstrated at the LinuxWorld conference in Moscone Center in San Francisco, August 5–7, 2008.[9]

Fox also is a founding member of both the California Association of Voting Officials (CAVO)[10] and the National Association of Voting Officials (NAVO).[11] These not-for-profit organizations promote open source voting systems for use in public elections. Fox co-wrote a New York Times piece in 2015 with former CIA head R. James Woolsey advocating open source election systems as a means of securing US elections against interference from foreign actors.[12]

Other software

Fox also wrote AMACS, a cut-down implementation of Emacs for the Apple II series.[13]

Relatives

He is the fourth born in a family of six siblings, composer and musician Donal Fox, Thaddeus Fox, sister Ena Fox, Daniel Fox and sister Sara Fox-Ray. He is the son of physicist and educator Herbert Fox[14] and grandson of artist Daniel Fox, creator of the Monopoly Man.[15]

References

  1. ^ Brian Fox (forwarded by Leonard H. Tower Jr.) (June 7, 1989). "Bash is in beta release!". Newsgroup: gnu.announce. Usenet: 8906080235.AA01983@wheat-chex.ai.mit.edu. Retrieved October 28, 2010.
  2. ^ "January 1993 GNU's Bulletin". Newsgroup: gnu.announce. April 20, 1993. Usenet: gnusenet930421bulletin@prep.ai.mit.edu. Retrieved October 28, 2010.
  3. ^ Chet Ramey (October 31, 2010), Dates in your Computerworld interview, retrieved October 31, 2010
  4. ^ a b "A Bash with Brian Fox: GNU Software and Entrepreneurship". engineering.UCSB.edu. Archived from the original on November 19, 2011.
  5. ^ "Brian Fox". Archived from the original on July 24, 2011.
  6. ^ The GNU Bash Reference Manual Archived July 16, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, (HTML version Archived February 2, 2006, at the Wayback Machine) by Chet Ramey and Brian Fox, ISBN 0-9541617-7-7
  7. ^ "echo.c".
  8. ^ Chet Ramey and Brian Fox. "The GNU Readline Page" (PDF). Docs.freebsd.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 31, 2003. Retrieved May 4, 2015.
  9. ^ "OVC at LinuxWorld 2008". YouTube. Alan Dechert. August 23, 2008. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved November 27, 2016.
  10. ^ "Board Members". California Association of Voting Officials. Retrieved November 27, 2016.
  11. ^ "Board Members". National Association of Voting Officials. Retrieved November 27, 2016.
  12. ^ Woolsey, R. James; Fox, Brian J. (August 3, 2017). "To Protect Voting, Use Open-Source Software". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  13. ^ "AppleIIc emacs".
  14. ^ "Herbert Fox". Uml.edu. November 25, 2013. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015. Retrieved May 4, 2015.
  15. ^ Assoc. of Game and Puzzle Collectors Quarterly www.AGPC.ORG summer 2013 Vol.15 No. 2. Page 18. Meet Dan Fox-- The Artist Who Created "Mr. Monopoly" by Philip E.Orbanes

External links