Up and Coming FOSS Leaders?

[darthsabbath]

The death of Jon Danzig (Loss of an Open Source Hero - MadPenguin (http://madpenguin.org/cms/?m=show&id=4323)), president of Libranet, got me thinking... currently, the big names in FOSS software are Linus and RMS, with ESR, Eben Moglen (sp?), and Bruce Perens in there as well.

But who's coming after them? Are there any rising stars in the FOSS world who could bring the fight to "the man" the way the aforementioned have, when the original members of the FOSS movement are gone?

Now, I'm certainly not saying that the above mentioned are ALL there are to the FOSS community, but they are the "celebrities," if you will, and the most recognized names.

Is there anyone who could/would go before congress and fight for our right to be Free?

Phil

[somuchfortheafter]

of course there is, me lol. by that i mean the if each of us do are own part to tell others about the values of open source and its advantages then the open source world will still be as awesome as it is now or perhaps better , eventually someone will rise for a figurehead however they are not really needed

[Lovechild]

I have a feeling that John 'J5' Palmeri (of RedHat, DBUS and GNOME fame) will be big, he's an awesome guy..
Also big thinkers like Seth Nickell who can explain to developers how humans interact will also play a bigger part.
Marketing'ish people like Jeff Waugh (I know he hacks a bit, but the man is primarilly an endless source of inspiration.. Developers, developers, developers.. or in his case.. ISVs, ISVs, ISVs - hug your ISVs) will also shape our future, we need to get to the people rather than cater to our own.

Generally I think we'll get to savor those who make GUI work more than "real" hackers like Linus and Alan, we don't care what goes on behind the scenes as long as it works. Someone like RML who plays it both ways, might be able to bridge the gap between the two camps. As he put it himself we need better tools, that requires cooperation.