Rob Savoye is the primary developer of Gnash

Gnash

Gnash is a media player for playing SWF files. Gnash is available both as a standalone player for desktop computers and embedded device, as well as a plugin for several browsers. It is part of the GNU Project and is a Free and open-source alternative to Adobe Flash Player...

. He is a developer for the GNU Project

GNU Project

The GNU Project is a free software, mass collaboration project, announced on September 27, 1983, by Richard Stallman at MIT. It initiated GNU operating system development in January, 1984...

, having worked on Debian

Debian

Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...

, Red Hat

Red Hat

Red Hat, Inc. is an S&P 500 company in the free and open source software sector, and a major Linux distribution vendor. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina with satellite offices worldwide....

 and dozens of other free

Free software

Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...

/open source software projects. He was among the first employees of Cygnus Support

Cygnus Solutions

Cygnus Solutions, originally Cygnus Support, was founded in 1989 by John Gilmore, Michael Tiemann and David Henkel-Wallace to provide commercial support for free software...

, which was sold to Red Hat in 2001.

He began programming computers in 1977 using Fortran 4. Some of the projects he has worked on include GCC

GNU Compiler Collection

The GNU Compiler Collection is a compiler system produced by the GNU Project supporting various programming languages. GCC is a key component of the GNU toolchain...

, GDB, DejaGnu

DejaGnu

DejaGnu is a framework for testing other programs. It has a main script called runtest that goes through a directory looking at configuration files and then runs some tests with given criteria. The purpose of the DejaGnu package is to provide a single front end for all tests. It is a part of the...

, Cygwin

Cygwin

Cygwin is a Unix-like environment and command-line interface for Microsoft Windows. Cygwin provides native integration of Windows-based applications, data, and other system resources with applications, software tools, and data of the Unix-like environment...

, eCos

ECos

eCos is an open source, royalty-free, real-time operating system intended for embedded systems and applications which need only one process with multiple threads. It is designed to be customizable to precise application requirements of run-time performance and hardware needs...

 and CTAS.

Rob manages an unofficial website for the Rainbow Family of Living Light

Rainbow Family

The Rainbow Family of Living Light is a loosely affiliated group of individuals committed to principles of non-violence and egalitarianism. They put on events known as Rainbow Gatherings....

.

He resides outside of Nederland, Colorado

Nederland, Colorado

The Town of Nederland is a Statutory Town established in 1885 located near the Continental Divide and Barker Meadow Reservoir in the mountains of southwest Boulder County, Colorado....

 and is an avid ice climber and outdoorsman. Additionally, Rob is involved in search and rescue of lost and stranded hikers and climbers, and is a founding member of IMSAR (the Ilchester Mountain Search and Rescue organization).

At Libre Planet 2011, Rob received the individual achievement FSF Award for the advancement of Free Software for his work on Gnash.

External links

• Rob Savoye Home Page
• Welcomehome.org, unofficial homepage of the Rainbow Family of Living Light
• O'Reilly EuroOSCON: Rob Savoye of Gnash (video)
• eokyere interview with Rob Savoye on Gnash
• FLOSS Weekly, Episode 94, November 5th, 2009 - Interview with Rob Savoye on Gnash