Daniel Robbins
From Free net encyclopedia
- This article is about the software developer. The Microsoft Research employee, Daniel C. Robbins, is a different person.
Daniel Robbins is a software developer and the current Chief Technology Officer at ABC Coding Solutions in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is also the founder and once served as chief architect of the Gentoo Linux project [1]. During 2005 and early 2006, Robbins was the subject of some controversy [2] surrounding his accepting a position at Microsoft [3].
Prior to working at Microsoft, Robbins was a fairly prolific technical writer, writing tutorials for IBM and the Gentoo project, among others.
Robbins first came into contact with Linux while working as a system administrator at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Following this, he worked as a developer on Stampede Linux, and later formed his own distribution Enoch Linux, before finally creating Gentoo Linux in 2002.
The Gentoo Linux project proved to be difficult to run profitably.
"I very much want to find a way to turn the Gentoo Linux project into a profitable enterprise. My main motivation in wanting to do this is so I can stop living from paycheck to paycheck and focus my professional efforts exclusively on Gentoo Linux development. Many of our developers would like to do the same thing". OSNews.com, 15 May, 2002. [4]
By April 2004, Robbins had incurred debt of around $20,000 [5].
He subsequently resigned as Chief Architect of Gentoo Linux on April 26, 2004, citing this debt, and a desire to spend more time with his family. In so doing, Robbins formed the Gentoo Foundation and transferred all Gentoo intellectual property to the foundation.
Robbins' later move to Microsoft, on 13 June 2005, attracted attention within the Linux community, which has historically had a competitive relationship with Microsoft. He described his role working for Bill Hilf as "helping Microsoft to understand Open Source and community-based projects" [6].
Citing difficulty reaching a 'full level of technical ability' in this position, he resigned on 16 January 2006 [7].
External links
- http://www.ABCcodes.com/ali/bio/drobbins_bio.asp Robbins' biography at ABC Coding Solutionses:Daniel Robbins