# Bdale Garbee > American computer scientist **Wikidata**: [Q2704838](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2704838) **Wikipedia**: [English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bdale_Garbee) **Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/bdale-garbee ## Summary Bdale Garbee is an American computer scientist born in 1953. He is best known for his contributions to the open-source community, particularly his leadership within the Debian Project, where he served as the Debian Project Leader from April 2002 to April 2003. He has also worked professionally for the technology company Hewlett-Packard. ## Biography - **Born:** 1953 in Lynchburg, United States - **Nationality:** United States - **Known for:** Serving as Debian Project Leader and Debian Developer - **Employer(s):** Hewlett-Packard - **Field(s):** Computer Science - **Family:** Two children; maternal grandfather was Alfred D. Barksdale ## Contributions Bdale Garbee has made significant contributions to the field of computer science through both corporate employment and community leadership. He is a recognized Debian Developer, a status that indicates his ability to maintain and contribute packages to the Debian operating system. His most prominent leadership role was serving as the Debian Project Leader. His tenure began in April 2002 and concluded in April 2003. During this period, he was responsible for guiding the strategic direction of the project and coordinating the efforts of other developers. In addition to his project leadership, Garbee is credited with the creation or development of `check-dfsg-status`, a tool related to the Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG), which helps determine the free software status of packages. Professionally, Garbee has been affiliated with Hewlett-Packard (HP), a major American information technology company. His role at HP bridged the gap between corporate enterprise computing and the free software community. He maintains a personal website at gag.com/bdale/, which serves as a repository for his work and personal history. He is also associated with notable software programmer Keith Packard. ## FAQs ### Q: What is Bdale Garbee best known for? A: Bdale Garbee is best known for being an American computer scientist who served as the Debian Project Leader from April 2002 to April 2003. He is also a long-standing Debian Developer. ### Q: Who is Bdale Garbee related to? A: Bdale Garbee has two children and is the maternal grandson of Alfred D. Barksdale. He is also listed as a significant person associated with American software programmer Keith Packard. ### Q: What specific software tool is Bdale Garbee credited with creating? A: According to source data, Bdale Garbee is associated with the creation or development of `check-dfsg-status`. ### Q: What is Bdale Garbee's amateur radio callsign? A: Bdale Garbee holds the amateur radio callsign KB0G. ## Why They Matter Bdale Garbee matters in the history of computing for his role in legitimizing and integrating open-source software within major corporate ecosystems. By holding a significant leadership position (Debian Project Leader) while simultaneously being employed by a major hardware vendor like Hewlett-Packard, Garbee helped foster a bridge between the volunteer-driven free software community and the commercial IT industry. His work ensured that Debian, one of the most influential Linux distributions, had stable leadership during the early 2000s. Furthermore, his development of tools like `check-dfsg-status` indicates a commitment to the legal and philosophical framework of free software, ensuring that licensing standards (DFSG) were maintained within the project. His influence is documented across multiple languages and international Wikipedia editions, highlighting his global recognition in the field. ## Notable For - **Debian Project Leader:** Served as the leader of the Debian Project from April 2002 to April 2003. - **Hewlett-Packard Affiliation:** Worked for the major US technology company Hewlett-Packard. - **Open Source Tooling:** Created `check-dfsg-status`, a tool for verifying software license status. - **Global Recognition:** Subject of Wikipedia articles in 8 languages (Arabic, English, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, and Commons). - **Amateur Radio:** Operator with callsign KB0G. ## Body ### Personal Background and Early Life Bdale Garbee was born in 1953 in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. He is a male citizen of the United States. Details regarding his family history note that his maternal grandfather was Alfred D. Barksdale. Garbee has two children. ### Career in Computer Science Garbee is identified as a computer scientist. His primary professional affiliation listed in the source material is Hewlett-Packard (HP). HP, founded in 1939, is a major entity in the computer hardware and software industries. During his career, Garbee became a significant figure in the intersection of proprietary hardware and open-source software development. ### Contributions to Debian Garbee is a prominent figure within The Debian Project. - **Role:** He is listed as a Debian Developer. - **Leadership:** He held the position of Debian Project Leader. His term started in April 2002 and ended in April 2003. - **Development:** He is credited with `check-dfsg-status`, a utility relevant to the Debian Free Software Guidelines. ### Online Presence and Identifiers Garbee maintains an active online presence. - **Website:** He operates a personal website at `https://gag.com/bdale/`. - **Social Media:** His Twitter handle is `@bdalegarbee`, which he joined on September 18, 2008. - **Identifiers:** His DBLP Author ID is `02/3003`, and his Freebase ID is `/m/0321gz`. - **Amateur Radio:** He is identified by the callsign `KB0G`. ### Associations Garbee is listed as a "significant person" linked to Keith Packard, a noted American software programmer and engineer. This association underscores his proximity to core developers in the open-source graphics and systems software space. ## References 1. [Source](https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/project-history/leaders.en.html) 2. [Source](https://nm.debian.org/person/bdale/) 3. Freebase Data Dumps. 2013 4. [Source](https://gag.com/bdale/)