| Brian Jhan Fox | |
| Birth Date: | 11 December 1959 |
| Birth Place: | Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Employer: | Opus Logica, Inc. |
| Known For: | GNU Bash |
| Relatives: | Donal Fox (brother) |
Brian Jhan Fox (born 1959) is an American computer programmer and free software advocate. He is the original author of the GNU Bash shell, which he announced as a beta in June 1989.[1] He continued as the primary maintainer of bash until at least early 1993.[2] Fox also built the first interactive online banking software in the U.S. for Wells Fargo in 1995,[3] and he created an open source election system in 2008.
In 1985, Fox worked with Richard Stallman at Stallman's newly created Free Software Foundation.[4] At the FSF, Fox authored GNU Bash,[5] GNU Makeinfo, GNU Info, GNU Finger, GNU Echo[6] and the readline[7] and history libraries.
He was also the maintainer of GNU Emacs for a time, making many contributions to the software which was created and maintained for the GNU Project between 1986 and 1994.[3]
In 2008, Fox collaborated with Alan Dechert and Brent Turner to create a completely open source election system. The system was coded together with Parker Abercrombie, and demonstrated at the LinuxWorld conference in Moscone Center in San Francisco, August 5–7, 2008.[8]
Fox also is a founding member of both the California Association of Voting Officials (CAVO)[9] and the National Association of Voting Officials (NAVO).[10] These not-for-profit organizations promote open source voting systems for use in public elections. Fox co-wrote a New York Times piece in 2015 with former CIA head R. James Woolsey advocating open source election systems as a means of securing US elections against interference from foreign actors.[11]
Fox also wrote AMACS, a cut-down implementation of Emacs for the Apple II series.[12]
He is the fourth born in a family of six siblings, composer and musician Donal Fox, Thaddeus Fox, sister Ena Fox, Daniel Fox and sister Sara Fox-Ray. He is the son of physicist and educator Herbert Fox[13] and grandson of artist Daniel Fox, creator of the Monopoly Man.[14]