Russ Nelson

Russell "Russ" Nelson (born March 21, 1958) is an American computer programmer. He was a founding board member of the Open Source Initiative and briefly served as its president in 2005.

Career

In 1983, Nelson co-wrote a MacPaint clone, Painter's Apprentice, with Patrick Naughton. Nelson was the original developer of Freemacs (a variant of Emacs used by FreeDOS). While attending university, Nelson began developing the collection of drivers later commercially released as the "Crynwr Collection" In 1991, he founded Crynwr Software, a company located in Potsdam, New York, supporting deployment of large-scale e-mail systems, development of packet drivers, Linux kernel drivers, and reverse engineering of embedded systems.

In 1998, Nelson became one of the first group to serve on the Board of Directors of the Open Source Initiative. In February 2005, he became the President of the Open Source Initiative, but resigned a few days later (remaining on the Board), on February 23, 2005, because a posting on his personal blog was deemed to be racist. Nelson apologized to those who perceived the post (which he withdrew because it "was not well written") as racist, and indicated that he did not believe himself to be politically savvy enough for the role of president. Six years later, in March 2011, he departed the Board due to term limits on the position.

Willie Nelson

Willie Hugh Nelson (/wɪli nɛlsən/; born April 29, 1933) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger (1975) and Stardust (1978), made Nelson one of the most recognized artists in country music. He was one of the main figures of outlaw country, a subgenre of country music that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restrictions of the Nashville sound. Nelson has acted in over 30 films, co-authored several books, and has been involved in activism for the use of biofuels and the legalization of marijuana.

Leon Russell

Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges, April 2, 1942) is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music.

Overview

Born in Lawton, Oklahoma, United States, Russell began playing piano at the age of four. He attended Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Also at Will Rogers High School were Anita Bryant, who was one year older, and in the same 1959 class, David Gates. Russell and Gates played and recorded together as the Fencement. A few years younger, also at Will Rogers, was Elvin Bishop. At this time Russell was already performing at Tulsa nightclubs. After moving to Los Angeles, he became a session musician, working as a pianist on the recordings of many notable musical artists from the 1960s. By the late 1960s, Russell diversified, becoming successful as an arranger and songwriter. As a musician, he worked his way up from gigs as a sideman to well-known performers. By 1970, he had graduated to solo recording artist, although he never ended his previous roles within the music industry. After performing country music under the name Hank Wilson in the 1970s and 1980s, Russell had largely faded into obscurity. He re-emerged in 2010 when Elton John called on him to record an album that became The Union. The album brought renewed popularity to Russell who has since released a solo album and toured around the world.