Theo de Raadt, (IPA pronunciation: [dε rɔt]), (born May 19, 1968 in Pretoria, South Africa) is a software engineer who lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is the founder and leader of the OpenBSD and OpenSSH projects. Before this, he was a founding member of the NetBSD project.

De Raadt is noted for his uncompromising and abrasive manner, which has contributed to several disputes within the free software community, most notably his dispute with the NetBSD core team which led to the formation of OpenBSD.

Childhood

Theo de Raadt is the eldest of four children, with two sisters and a brother. Concern over the mandatory two-year armed forces conscription in South Africa led the family to emigrate to Canada in November 1977. In 1981 the largest recession in Canada since the Great Depression sent the family to the Yukon. Prior to the move Theo got his first computer, a Commodore VIC-20. It is with this computer he first began to program.

DARPA funding cancellation

After de Raadt stated his disapproval of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq in an interview with Toronto's Globe and Mail, a multi-million-dollar US Department of Defense grant to the University of Pennsylvania's POSSE project was cancelled, effectively ending the project. Funding from the grant had been used in the development of OpenSSH and OpenBSD, as well as many other projects and was to be used to pay for the hackathon planned for May 8, 2003. Despite money from the grant already having been used to secure accommodations for sixty developers for a week, the money was reclaimed by the government at a loss and the hotel was told not to allow the developers to pay the reclaimed money to resecure the rooms.[2] This resulted in criticism among some that the US military held an anti-free speech attitude. The grant termination was, however, not as bad a blow as some portrayed it. The project's supporters rallied to help and the hackathon went on almost as planned. The funding was cut mere months before the end of the grant, further fueling the speculations regarding the situation surrounding the grant's termination.

Free driver advocacy

De Raadt is also well known for his advocacy of Free Software drivers. He has long been critical of developers of Linux and other free platforms for their tolerance of non-free drivers and acceptance of non-disclosure agreements.

In particular, de Raadt has worked to convince wireless hardware vendors to allow their product firmware to be redistributable freely. These efforts have been largely successful, particularly in negotiations with Taiwanese companies, leading to many new wireless drivers. Today, Theo encourages wireless users to "buy Taiwanese", due to lack of willingness from US companies like Intel to release firmware free from licensing restrictions.

For this de Raadt was awarded the FSF's 2004 Award for the Advancement of Free Software.

                       

Courtesy of: http://www.answers.com/Theo%20De%20Raadt