This document profiles several influential figures in the history of computing and the internet. It discusses the contributions of pioneers like Steve Jobs, Tim Berners-Lee, Bill Gates, Linus Torvalds, and others who developed early operating systems, programming languages, search engines, e-commerce sites, and more. It also mentions entrepreneurs who founded influential technology companies like Microsoft, Apple, Google, Oracle, and others.

3. Steve Jobs, the co-founder and chief
executive of Apple Computer, topped the
Computer Weekly 40th anniversary poll due to
the devoted following he has generated
through his pioneering work in personal
computing and product design.
Tim Berners Lee is the father of the
web and champion of IT freedom. He made
the imaginative leap to combine the internet
with the hypertext concept, and the
worldwide web was born.
In 1994, Berners-Lee founded the
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It
comprised various companies willing to
create standards and recommendations to
improve the quality of the web.

4. As joint founder of the world’s
biggest software company, Microsoft, Bill
Gates’s approach to technology and business
was instrumental in making technology
available to the masses. Gates stood down
as the CEO of Microsoft in 2000 to focus on
software development.
In 1984, Gosling joined Sun
Microsystems where he is currently the
chief technology officer in the developer
product group.
In the early 1990s, Gosling
initiated and led a project code-named
Green that eventually became Java. Green
aimed to develop software that would run
on a variety of computing devices without
having to be customized for each one.

5. As the creator of the Linux operating
system, Linus Torvalds has been a driving
force behind the whole open source
movement, which represents an ever
increasing challenge to proprietary software.
Torvalds remains the ultimate
authority on what new code is incorporated
into the Linux kernel.
Richard Stallman is the founder
of the GNU Project, an initiative to
develop a complete Unix-like operating
system which is free software. Stallman
has written several popular tools,
created the GNU license and campaigns
against software patents.

6. 2001: A Space Odyssey writer
Arthur Clarke has consistently been
ahead of his time in predicting how
technology will change the world.
Most notably, in 1945 he suggested
that geostationary satellites would
make ideal telecoms relays.
Ted Codd created 12
rules on which every
relational database is built -
an essential ingredient for
building business computer
systems.

7. Steve Shirley was an early
champion of women in IT. She
founded the company now known as
Xansa, pioneered new work practices
and in doing so, created new
opportunities for women in
technology.
With Brent Hoberman, Martha
Lane Fox created Lastminute.com in
1998, and as "the face" of Lastminute
raised the profile of e-commerce ever
higher in the public consciousness.

8. Ken Olsen is the
founder of Dec, who invented
the minicomputer.
Clive Sinclair is the
founder of Sinclair
electronics, Sinclair line of
computers.
He is also a home
computer visionary.

9. Vinton Cerf is one of
the internet's founding
fathers. He is also one of
the fathers of the Internet
and "Chief Internet
Evangelist" at Google.
Bill Joy is the co-
founder of Sun Microsystems.

10. Larry Ellison is a
Jewish billionaire and the
founder of the technology
company Oracle.
Steve Wozniak is the
Apple co-founder.

11. Dennis Ritchie is the
inventor of the C
programming language.
Donald Davies is the
co-inventor of packet
switching.

12. Ken Thompson is the
co-creator of Unix.
Grace Hopper is a
COBOL pioneer.

13. Paul Allen is the
Microsoft Co-founder and he
is a wealthy Internet
Entrepreneur.
Steve Ballmer is the
Chief Executive Officer
(CEO) of Microsoft
Corporation.

14. Jeff Bezos is the
billionaire Amazon.com
founder and Internet
Entrepreneur.
Sergey Brin is the
Google search engine co-
founder and billionaire
Internet Entrepreneur.

15. Steve Case is the AOL
(America Online) founder.
He is also an Internet
Entrepreneur.
Mark Cuban is a
billionaire Internet
Entrepreneur and NBA
basketball team owner.

16. Michael Dell is the
founder of Dell Computers
and he is a wealthy American
billionaire .
David Filo is an
American billionaire co-
founder of the Yahoo!
search engine and internet
portal with Jerry Yang.

17. Andy Grove is one of
the founding members of
the Intel Corporation.
Takafumi Horie is a
flamboyant young Japanese
Internet Entrepreneur of the
Livedoor Internet Company.

18. Craig Newmark is a
famous American Internet
Entrepreneur and founder of
the free classifieds website
Craigslist.
Pierre Omidyar is the
eBay founder and billionaire
Internet Entrepreneur.

19. Larry Page is a billionaire co-
founder of the successful
Google search engine.
Bob Parsons is the Go
Daddy domain name
registrar founder and he is
also an Internet
Entrepreneur.

20. Eric Schmidt is a
Technologist and Chief
Executive Officer (CEO) of
the Google company.
Meg Whitman is the
former Chief Executive Officer
(CEO) of the online auction
website eBay.

21. Jerry Yang is a
billionaire Yahoo!
Incorporated co-founder.
Mark Zuckerberg is the
famous American billionaire
founder of the social
networking site Facebook.

22. H. Edward Roberts is
the creator of the first
popular personal computer -
MITS Altair 8800.
Chuck Peddle is the
designer of the 6502 CPU
and the Commodore PET
2001 computer.

23. Lee Felsenstein is the
designer of the early
successful computers - Sol-
20, Osborne 1.
Jack Tramiel is the
founder and Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) of Commodore
computer company.

24. Gary Kildall created
the first popular computer
operating system - CP/M.
Andrew Kay is the
inventor of the DMM,
founder of Kaypro, which
created the Kaypro line of
portable computers.

25. Software tycoon Mr. Azim
Premji is India’s Bill Gates and one
of the Richest Indian for the past
several years.
He is the Founder and
Chairman of Wipro Technologies –
one of the largest software
companies in India.
N.R. Narayana
Murthy is the GURU of
Information Technology.
He is the co-founder
of Infosys Technologies
and is one of the most well
known personalities in the
Indian IT sector.

26. Sabeer Bhatia was the co-
founder of Hotmail.com –
the world’s first webmail service.
He has announced three
more ventures – Arzoo, Instacoll
and SabseBol – after Hotmail.
Gary Morolo became the CEO
of the company which he and Reuel
Khoza founded, called Co-ordinated
Marketing & Management (Pty) Ltd. in
1986. He also became the Non-Executive
Chairman of two listed investee
companies, Datacentrix Holdings Limited
and IST Group Limited, at their listing in
the technology sector of the JSE Limited
in1998.

27. Vinny Lingham is a South
African Internet entrepreneur and the founder
and CEO of Yola, Inc. (formerly known
as SynthaSite), a San Francisco-based Web
2.0 start-up that provides free website building,
publishing and hosting services. He is also
the co-founder of SiliconCape.com,
an NGO based in South Africa that aims to
turn Cape Town into a technology hub. Lingham
was previously the founder and CEO of the
global search marketing firm incuBeta and its
subsidiary Clicks2Customers.
Rob Sussman is a
joint Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) and joint
founder of Integr8
Group.