Patrick Volkerding

Who is Patrick Volkerding?

Patrick Volkerding is the founder and maintainer of the Slackware Linux distribution. He is the "Slackware Benevolent Dictator for Life." Volkerding earned a Bachelor of Science in computer science from Minnesota State University Moorhead in 1993.

For a short while, Chris Lumens and others assisted with his work on Slackware. Due to the lack of a continuing revenue stream following the sale of his publisher, Walnut Creek CDROM, to BSDi, these people had to be let go. For the last several years Patrick Volkerding has managed Slackware with the help of many volunteers and testers. Volkerding manages releases of Slackware. In 2014, he won O'Reilly Open Source Award.