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{{Infobox Person
| name =
| image = DSC 7781.JPG
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| caption = Alan Cox at [[FOSS.IN]]/2005
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1968-07-29
| birth_place = [[Solihull]], [[England]]
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| residence = [[Swansea]], [[Wales]]
| nationality = British
| other_names = ac
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| employer = [[Red Hat]]
| occupation = [[Programmer]]
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| spouse = Telsa Gwynne
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}}
'''Alan Cox''' (born 1968-07-22 in [[Solihull]], [[England]]) is a [[United Kingdom|British]] [[computer programmer]] heavily involved in the development of the [[Linux kernel]] since its early days (1991).

== Involvement in the Linux kernel==
While employed on the campus of [[University of Wales, Swansea]], he installed a very early version of [[Linux]] on one of the machines belonging to the university computer society. This was one of the first Linux installations on a busy [[computer network|network]], 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.

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. He was once commonly regarded as being the "second in command" after [[Linus Torvalds]] himself, before reducing his involvement with Linux to study for an [[Master of Business Administration|MBA]].<ref>[http://kerneltrap.org/node/759 Linux: Alan Cox To Take One Year Sabbatical].</ref> His informative and friendly comments have guided many programmers on the [[Linux kernel mailing list]]. Alan is employed by [[Red Hat]] and lives in [[Swansea]], [[Wales]] with his wife, Telsa Gwynne. Since then he has also been involved in the [[GNOME]] and [[X.Org Server|X.Org]] projects.

He was the main developer of [[AberMUD]], which he wrote whilst a student at the [[University of Wales, Aberystwyth]].

==Activism==
[[Image:With-alan-cox.jpg|thumb|250px|left|Alan Cox at the LinuxWorldExpo]]
Alan Cox is an ardent supporter of programming freedom, and an outspoken opponent of [[software patent]]s, the [[DMCA]] and the [[CBDTPA]]. He resigned from a subgroup of [[Usenix]] in protest, and said he would not visit the [[United States]] for fear of being imprisoned after the arrest of [[Dmitry Sklyarov]] for DMCA violations.

In January 2007, he proposed a series of "RMS", or ''Rights management systems''.<ref name="Patents">[http://www.freshpatents.com/Alan-Cox-Swansea-invdirc.php List of Alan Cox patents]</ref> It is said that he has filed a patent for [[Digital Rights Management]]. Red Hat Inc., Cox's employer, has stated (in a document drafted by [[Mark Webbink]] and Cox himself<ref>{{cite video
|people=Webbink, Mark (Interviewee)
|date2=2007-11-08
|title=Mark Webbink On: The Patent Promise
|url=http://truthhappens.redhatmagazine.com/2007/11/08/mark-webbink-on-the-patent-promise-2/
|format=Ogg Theora
|publisher=Red Hat Magazine
|accessdate=2007-12-23}}</ref>) that it will not use patents against [[free software]] projects,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.redhat.com/legal/patent_policy.html |publisher=Red Hat |title=Statement of Position and Our Promise on Software Patents |accessdate=2007-08-23}}</ref> so it is believed that these patents try to prevent future use of DRM technologies. Some think that these patents cover a part of the built-in DRM implementation of [[Windows Vista]], so that Vista would infringe these patents to a certain extent.

Cox is also an adviser to the [[Open Rights Group]] .<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.openrightsgroup.org/board-and-advisory-council |publisher=Open Rights Group |title=Board and Advisory Council |accessdate=2007-08-23}}</ref>

==Awards==
Cox was the recipient of the [[Free Software Foundation]]'s 2003 [[Award for the Advancement of Free Software]] at the [[FOSDEM]] conference in [[Brussels]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gnu.org/award/2003/2003.html |publisher=Free Software Foundation |title=2003 Award For the Advancement of Free Software |accessdate=2007-08-23}}</ref>

On [[October 5]] [[2005]], Cox received a lifetime achievement award at the [[LinuxWorld Conference and Expo|LinuxWorld]] awards in London.<ref>{{cite news |title=Linux pioneer wins lifetime achievement award |author=Matt Loney |date=[[2005-10-06]] |url=http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39226539,00.htm |publisher=[[ZDNet]] UK}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{portal|Free software|Free Software Portal Logo.svg}}
*[http://www.softpanorama.org/People/Cox/index.shtml Alan Cox: The maintainer of production version of the Linux kernel]. Ch. 5 of ebook ''Open Source Pioneers'', includes a lot of difficult to find interviews.
*[http://www.redhat.com/advice/ask_alancox.html Interview on his biography]
*[http://zenii.linux.org.uk/diary/ His diary] in [[Welsh language|Welsh]]
*[http://lwn.net/1999/features/ACInterview/ LWN interviews Alan Cox]
*[http://kerneltrap.org/node/9 Interview with Alan Cox - [[January 15]] [[2002]]]
*[http://www.lugradio.org/episodes/24 LugRadio interview]
*[http://www.linuxformat.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=15 Linux Format interview - August 2005]
*[http://slashdot.org/features/98/10/13/1423253.shtml Cathedrals, Bazaars and the Town Council - 1998-10-13]
*[http://bigbro.skynet.ie/resources/ogg/AlanCox_UL_20060513.ogg Ogg audio recording of a talk in Limerick, Ireland 2006-05-13], and a [http://fsfe.org/en/fellows/ciaran/weblog/alan_cox_5_minutes_on_gplv3_plus_comments transcript of an excerpt, about GPLv3]

{{FOSS celeb}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cox, Alan}}
[[Category:1968 births]]
[[Category:Alumni of Aberystwyth University]]
[[Category:British bloggers]]
[[Category:British computer programmers]]
[[Category:Linux kernel hackers]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:ZX Spectrum programmers]]
[[Category:People from Swansea]]

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