Benevolent dictator for life

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Benevolent Dictator For Life (BDFL) is a title given to a small number of open-source software development leaders, typically project founders who retain the final say in disputes or arguments within the community.

The phrase 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), the term appeared in a follow-up mail by Ken Manheimer to a meeting trying to create a semi-formal group that would oversee Python development and workshops; this initial use included the additional joke of naming van Rossum the "First Interim BDFL".[1]

BDFL should not be confused with the more common term for open-source leaders, "benevolent dictator", which was popularized by Eric S. Raymond's essay "Homesteading the Noosphere" (1999).[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.

Persons sometimes referred to as "benevolent dictators for life"

Name Project Type Reference
Mostapha Roudsari Ladybug + Honeybee Grasshopper plug-in (software) [4]
Dries Buytaert Drupal content management framework [5]
David Heinemeier Hansson Ruby on Rails web framework [6]
Adrian Holovaty and Jacob Kaplan-Moss Django web framework [7]
Theo de Raadt OpenBSD Unix-like operating system [8]
Daniel Robbins Funtoo Linux Linux distribution [9]
Sébastien Ros Orchard Project content management system [10]
Guido van Rossum Python programming language [6][11]
Linus Torvalds Linux operating system kernel [12][verification needed][6]
Patrick Volkerding Slackware Linux distribution [13]
Larry Wall Perl programming language [14]
Matt Mullenweg WordPress content management framework [15]
Nathan Voxland Liquibase database schema management [16]
Xavier Leroy OCaml programming language [17][18]
Ton Roosendaal Blender 3D computer graphics software [19]
Bram Moolenaar Vim text editor [20]
Don Syme F# programming language [21]
Rich Hickey Clojure programming language [22]
Fernando Pérez Jupyter scientific programming notebook [23]
Yukihiro Matsumoto (Matz) Ruby programming language [24]
Bryan Furlong (BDF) Sitecore Module Sitecore module [25]
Martin Odersky Scala programming language [26]

References

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  4. Grasshopper forum, "http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/ladybug-honeybee-s-benevolent-dictator-for-life?"
  5. Randy Fay, "How Do Open Source Communities Govern Themselves?"
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