The Father: Dr Richard M Stallman
The Son: Dr Linus Torvalds
The Holy Ghost/Spirit: Mr Patrick Volkerding

Bill Gates duh...

You should look him up sometime

(most hacks and malicious activity are from microsoft computers btw)

I don't "venerate" any of these people. Each of them, in their day, did amazing things with "what they had," and then became known for having done it. But they were never the only people who worked very hard on the projects for which "they" became famous as a spokesman. The tools were needed, so they began the process of building them, and of properly publicizing their nascent projects so that others wouldn't be stuck repeating the same thing: instead, the others would join. Many hundreds of people did "join," and remain.

Linus Torvalds, for example, started a project in his dorm room. (Maybe it wasn't much, but he could show that it was "entirely original work" for I.P. purposes.) And, to this day, he continues to be the "godfather" (project boss) of the Linux kernel component. But a very large team carries it on under his high-level management. So that the rest of us can "stand on the shoulders of giants." Linus had the right idea at what turned out to be the right time, and he "lit the spark." But the fireplace was already set. His managerial skills have since kept him fully involved, as "the kernel" has now branched out into well over twenty different architectures.

We love to read the stories of "Bill Gates and Paul Allen taking a paper tape to Albuquerque." But, they wrote damned-good compilers and interpreters, and a "much better operating system than CP/M" at exactly the right time. When people who were inventing very-different computers "all needed a BASIC," they perfected cross-compiler technology that could deliver the goods from a common code-base. And: Microsoft's products are still of exemplary quality and robustness. (Give the Devil his due.)

We all love to read about "the 'hacker,' laboring in his or her dorm room." But the reality is that actual software is the product of a team.

Didn't expect to have to quote that and link Wikipedia:hacker_culture on LinuxQuestions.org...

+1 flying spaghetti monster: Herwart Holland-Moritz