Enterprise open source Toolkit

Linux pioneer wins lifetime achievement award

Matt Loney ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 06 Oct 2005 12:30 BST

Alan Cox, sometime maintainer of the Linux Kernel and well-known open source advocate, picked up a lifetime achievement award at the LinuxWorld awards in London on Wednesday night.

Picking up the award in front of a rapturous crowd, Cox stressed the strength of open source development. "Open source works because we all walk the path together," Cox said. "Whether the path is hard or easy, if you have OK people at your back anybody can walk any path."

Cox, who lives in Wales, has been involved with the Linux kernel since 1991, and was often considered number two in the Linux movement behind Linus Torvalds.

IBM walked away with the user-nominated award for UK corporate contribution to Linux and open source, sponsored by ZDNet UK. Winners of other user-nominated awards included content management system Joomla for best open source project, Canonical's Ubuntu for best open source distribution, Rackspace for best open source ISP, and Brian Teeman of open source content management system Mambo for UK individual contribution to open source.

The compere for the evening, comedian Steve Nallon, needed no prompting in poking fun at the assembled crowd. "I do like all the dot-orgs," he noted in the manner of Barry Humpries' Dame Edna. "This is the only time all year that they get to see daylight. They are great though aren't they? They have everything you need in life except soap."

Winners of the judged sections were: Clockwork for best open source server application with PayThyme; Nokia's 770 for best embedded Linux/Mobile initiative; HP and Dreamworks for best use of CGI with open source; RedHat Global File System for best data storage solution; HP for best system builder; CGram for best business provider solution; IBM for best Linux hardware with its EServer Open Power server; SpreadFirefox for best marketing campaign; Allied Irish Bank for best enterprise open source deployment; and Powys School for the best public sector open source implementation. Eclipse and GCC jointly won the best open source developer tool category.

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Its the applications and device drivers that run on windows that cement its dominance. How many people would fork out hundreds of pounds for Vista if Linux ran all the software and kit they wanted to use.