Roberto Di Cosmo is a computer scientist and director of IRILL

IRILL

The Innovation and research initiative for free software is a French research center.This centre was created in September 2010 by INRIA with Pierre and Marie Curie University and Paris Diderot University and is located at the INRIA in Paris. Roberto Di Cosmo is the director of IRILL.IRILL aims to...

, the Innovation and research initiative for free software .

He graduated from the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa

Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa

The Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, also known in Italian as Scuola Normale , is a public higher learning institution in Italy. It was founded in 1810, by Napoleonic decree, as a branch of the École Normale Supérieure of Paris...

 and has a PhD from the University of Pisa

University of Pisa

The University of Pisa , located in Pisa, Tuscany, is one of the oldest universities in Italy. It was formally founded on September 3, 1343 by an edict of Pope Clement VI, although there had been lectures on law in Pisa since the 11th century...

, before becoming tenured professor at the École normale supérieure

École normale supérieure

An école normale supérieure or ENS is a type of publicly funded higher education in France. A portion of the student body who are French civil servants are called Normaliens....

 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, then professor at the Paris 7 University.

Di Cosmo was an early member of the AFUL, association of the French community of Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

 and Free Software

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...

 users, he's also known for his support in the Open Source Software movement.

He became famous after releasing a paper against Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

 in 1998 : Piège dans le cyberespace (Hijacking the world, the dark side of Microsoft). Co-written with the journalist Dominique Nora, this book is now freely available under Creative Commons

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...

 licence BY-NC-ND.
His most famous contributions to Linux is also the first « live » linux distribution

Linux distribution

A Linux distribution is a member of the family of Unix-like operating systems built on top of the Linux kernel. Such distributions are operating systems including a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players, and database applications...

 (2000 to 2002) : demolinux

DemoLinux

DemoLinux has been one of the first Live CD Linux distributions.It was created by Roberto Di Cosmo, Vincent Balat and Jean-Vincent Loddo, in 1998.The DemoLinux CD was created to make it possible to use Linux without having to install it on the hard disk...

, making possible to boot Linux from a CD-Rom

CD-ROM

A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....

, without setting up the entire distribution.

He was one of the founders, and the first president, of the Open Source Thematic Group within the System@tic innovation cluster.

Di Cosmo is a member of the Board of Trustees at the IMDEA Software Institute.

External links

• Own Page
• Hijacking the world free under licence CC-BY-NC-ND. Printed: Calmann-Levy 1998, ISBN 2-7021-2923-4
• Demolinux
• Interview of Roberto Di Cosmo in I-CIO, July 2009