The OS Hall of Fame

It takes teams of thousands and several years to make

a complete OS. But sometimes, one man stands out from the team, and the OS gets identified

with that one person…

align="left" hspace="5" vspace="5" border="0"> color="#FF0000">Alan Cox

A self-styled kernel hacker who’s acknowledged as

Linus’ right-hand man in developing the Linux kernel. Focuses on the SMP and

networking aspects of Linux.

Andrew S Tanenbaum

Professor

at Vrije University, Amsterdam, Tanenbaum is one of the authorities on operating systems.

Also wrote Minix, a Unix clone. Professor

at Vrije University, Amsterdam, Tanenbaum is one of the authorities on operating systems.

Also wrote Minix, a Unix clone.

align="right" hspace="5" vspace="5">Bill

Joy

The Joy of Unix. One of the leading lights of BSD Unix in the early days.

Subsequently, co-founded Sun. Wrote the C-shell, and designed Sun’s network file

system. Currently, chief scientist at Sun.

Brad Silverberg

The

leader of the Windows team at Microsoft. Currently, on extended sabbatical. The

leader of the Windows team at Microsoft. Currently, on extended sabbatical.

David Cutler

Developer

of Digital Unix. Later joined Microsoft (1988) as one of the kingpins of the NT

development team. Developer

of Digital Unix. Later joined Microsoft (1988) as one of the kingpins of the NT

development team.

Donna Dubinsky

and color="#FF0000">Jeff Hawkins Kick started the handheld market with the Palm

Pilot and the PalmOS. Their company, Palm Computing was bought out by US Robotics, which

was taken over by 3Com. Later, they left 3Com to form Handspring, which develops products

for the handheld market. Interestingly, Palm Computing has always had women at the helm of

affairs. and color="#FF0000">Jeff Hawkins Kick started the handheld market with the Palm

Pilot and the PalmOS. Their company, Palm Computing was bought out by US Robotics, which

was taken over by 3Com. Later, they left 3Com to form Handspring, which develops products

for the handheld market. Interestingly, Palm Computing has always had women at the helm of

affairs.

MVS any body?

face="Arial" size="2">MVS (multiple virtual storage) is the OS of the older IBM

mainframes. Introduced in 1974, it has since been replaced by OS/390.

Incidentally, IBM has had a singularly unimaginative way of

naming their operating systems: OS/2, OS 6000, OS 390, and so on.

James Gosling

Developed Java. Though Java is not an OS, it offers OS independence to developers. He is

currently the vice alt="jeanlouisgassee.JPG (6073 bytes)" align="right" hspace="5" vspace="5"> face="Arial" size="2">president at Sun.

Jean Louis Gassé

The

moving force behind the BeOS. The

moving force behind the BeOS.

Ken Thompson

and color="#FF0000">Denis Ritchie color="#FF0000"> Ensured their place amongst the all-time greats

of the computing world by developing Unix.

Linus Benedict Torvalds

Perhaps

the most talked about OS alt="linus.JPG (5455 bytes)" align="left" hspace="5" vspace="5">developer today. Started

developing Linux while a student at the Helsinki University, Finland. Today, he is one of

the leading lights of the free software movement. Linus works at Transmeta, a company

promoted by Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft. However, not much is known about what

Transmeta is up to.

align="right" hspace="5" vspace="5">Steven

Jobs

Developed the Macintosh and the

MacOS. Left Apple to form Next, and

developed NextStep. Returned to Apple to lead the company back to a remarkable recovery.

MacOS X is being developed during his second tenure at Apple.

align="left">William H Gates Jr

Better known as Bill Gates. The richest man in the world. Wrote the BASIC interpreter and

MS DOS. Is widely accepted to be the visionary behind Windows and other MS products.

 

size="3">Ramlal Bhagat and his 32-bit "O-Yes" face="Arial" size="2"> Apparently, Ramlal Bhagat is a 12th face="Arial" size="2">standard student in Haryana who has developed a superior, graphical, 32-bit operating system for the PC that’s faster than any available. Apparently, he named it "O-Yes". And apparently, HCL brought this operating system off Ramlal. The only problem is that Ramlal has been in the 12th standard for as long as one can remember, and HCL has not been able to do anything further beyond purchasing it, all these years. Oh-Yes! The scam still surfaces every once in a while in mailing lists, and a few gullible souls get taken in every time it does.