Harald Welte

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Harald Welte

Born	1979
Residence	Berlin, Germany
Nationality	German
Occupation	Programmer
Website http://gnumonks.org/~laforge/weblog/

Harald Welte (born 1979) is a programmer resident in Berlin, Germany. Within the free software community, Welte is well known as a hacker of the Linux kernel and for his activities in enforcing the GNU General Public License (GPL), the license that governs the use of much of free software.

Welte is also involved in a number of free software projects, such as OpenMoko, (a Linux version for completely open, low-cost, high-volume phones) and the netfilter/iptables project (the core firewall mechanism in Linux-based firewall computers and routing devices). He is an active member of the Chaos Computer Club.

1 Linux kernel development
2 GPL enforcement
3 Openmoko
4 FSF Award
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Linux kernel development

Until 2007, Welte was the chairman of the core team responsible for the netfilter/iptables project.^[1] He is also credited with writing the UUCP over SSL how-to, and contributions to User-mode Linux and international encryption kernel projects, among others.

[edit] GPL enforcement

In recent times, Welte has become prominent for his work with gpl-violations.org - an organisation he set up to track down and prosecute violators of the GPL, which had been untested in court until then.

[edit] Openmoko

Welte was Lead System Architect for OpenMoko, a project to create a smartphone platform using free software.^[2] It uses the Linux kernel, together with a graphical user environment built using X.Org Server, Matchbox window manager and the Novell Evolution email client. The OpenEmbedded build framework and ipkg package management system are used to create and maintain software packages.

However in 2007, Welte announced his withdrawal from Openmoko, citing internal friction and demotivation. He continues to contribute as a volunteer to the project.^[3]

[edit] FSF Award

On March 19th, 2008, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) announced that it had awarded the Award for the Advancement of Free Software for 2007 to Welte^[4], stating that "The awards committee honored both Welte's technical contributions to projects like the Linux kernel and the OpenMoko mobile platform project, and his community leadership in safeguarding the freedom of free software users by successfully enforcing the GNU General Public License in over one hundred cases since the gpl-violations.org project began in 2004."