Brian Jhan Fox (born 1959) is an American

computer programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles ''software developer'' and ''software engineer'' are used for jobs that require a progr ...

and

free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...

advocate. He is the original author of the

GNU GNU ( ) is an extensive collection of free software (394 packages ), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operating systems popu ...

Bash

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

, which he announced as a beta in June 1989. He continued as the primary maintainer of Bash until at least early 1993. Fox also built the first interactive

online banking Online banking, also known as internet banking, virtual banking, web banking or home banking, is a system that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial institut ...

software in the U.S. for

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with a significant global presence. The company operates in 35 countries and serves over 70 million customers worldwide. It is a systemically important fi ...

in 1995, and he created an

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

election system in 2008.

Free Software Foundation

In 1985, Fox worked with

Richard Stallman Richard Matthew Stallman ( ; born March 16, 1953), also known by his initials, rms, is an American free software movement activist and programmer. He campaigns for software to be distributed in such a manner that its users have the freedom to ...

at Stallman's newly created

Free Software Foundation The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985. The organisation supports the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed ...

(FSF). At the FSF, Fox authored

GNU Bash In computing, Bash (short for "''Bourne Again SHell''") is an interactive command interpreter and command programming language developed for UNIX-like operating systems. Created in 1989 by Brian Fox for the GNU Project, it is supported by the Fre ...

, GNU Makeinfo, GNU Info, GNU Finger, GNU Echo and the readline and history libraries. He was also the maintainer of

GNU Emacs GNU Emacs is a text editor and suite of free software tools. Its development began in 1984 by GNU Project founder Richard Stallman, based on the Emacs editor developed for Unix operating systems. GNU Emacs has been a central component of the GNU ...

for a time, making many contributions to the software which was created and maintained for the

GNU Project The GNU Project ( ) is a free software, mass collaboration project announced by Richard Stallman on September 27, 1983. Its goal is to give computer users freedom and control in their use of their computers and Computer hardware, computing dev ...

between 1986 and 1994.

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 The George R. Moscone Convention Center (), popularly known as the Moscone Center, is the largest convention and exhibition complex in San Francisco, California, United States. The complex consists of three main halls spread out across three bl ...

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, August 5–7, 2008. Fox also is a founding member of both the California Association of Voting Officials (CAVO) and the National Association of Voting Officials (NAVO). These not-for-profit organizations promote open source voting systems for use in public elections. Fox co-wrote a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' piece in 2015 with former

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

head R. James Woolsey advocating open source election systems as a means of securing US elections against interference from foreign actors.

Other software

Fox also wrote AMACS, a cut-down implementation of

Emacs Emacs (), originally named EMACS (an acronym for "Editor Macros"), is a family of text editors that are characterized by their extensibility. The manual for the most widely used variant, GNU Emacs, describes it as "the extensible, customizable, s ...

for the

Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...

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 and grandson of artist Daniel Fox, creator of the Rich Uncle Pennybags, Monopoly Man.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

References

External links

Opus Logica, Inc.
*
The BuddyCast Protocol
by Mel Beckman, Denison Bollay, and Brian Fox
@BrianJFox
on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Brian Free software programmers GNU people 1959 births Living people 20th-century African-American writers American writers American computer programmers 21st-century African-American scientists