Q: What is Bruce Perens best known for?

A: Bruce Perens is best known for his leadership in the Debian project and co-founding the Open Source Initiative (OSI), which defined the principles of open-source software.

Q: When was Bruce Perens born?

A: Sources conflict on his birth year, with some citing 1950 and others 1958.

Q: What companies has Bruce Perens worked for?

A: He has worked for Hewlett-Packard (2000–2002) and Pixar.

Q: What is Bruce Perens' role in open-source software?

A: He co-founded the Open Source Initiative and authored the Debian Free Software Guidelines, shaping the modern open-source movement.

Q: Does Bruce Perens have any notable personal interests?

A: Yes, he is an amateur radio operator with the callsign K6BP.

Bruce Perens

American computer scientist

Person Human Q92653

Facts

20 properties

Instance of: human
Sex or gender: male^[9]
Date of birth: 1950, 1958^[1]^[4]
Country of citizenship: United States^[5]
Occupation: programmer, computer scientist
Employer: Pixar, Hewlett-Packard (2000–2002)^[8]
Field of work: programmer^[6]
Position held: Debian project leader^[7]
Official website: perens.com^[11]
Website: perens.com
Birth date: 1950, 1958
Citizenship: United States
Languages spoken, written or signed: English^[12]
Given name: Bruce^[10]
Library of congress authority id: no2010023223
Medical condition: cerebral palsy
Twitter: BrucePerens
Viaf id: 107414534
Video: commons.wikimedia.org
Writing language: English

🏷️ Also known as

en Bruce Perens ar بروس بيرنز ar بروس بيرنس ar Bruce Perens de Perens fa بروس پرنز ja ブルース・ペレンズ ja Bruce Perens ja ブルース・ペレンス ja ペレンズ ko 브루스 페렌스 ru Брюс Перенс ru Перенс ru Перенс Брюс ru Перенс, Брюс zh 布魯斯·斐倫斯 zh-hans 布鲁斯·斐伦斯

🔖 Identifiers · 19

ISNI: 0000000077154121
VIAF cluster ID: 107414534
Library of Congress Authorities ID: no2010023223
Image (Wikimedia Commons): Bruce perens 13jan09 tacd MAR 1557x1188.JPG ↗
AllMovie person ID: p306119
Amateur radio callsign: K6BP
DBLP author ID: 78/6804
ElFilm person ID: 281727
Elonet person ID: 1026079
Freebase ID: /m/018p1
IMDb ID: nm0673302
IdRef ID: 076587398

Show all 19 identifiers +7

Kinobox person ID: 354435
Kinopoisk person ID: 239965
OpenMLOL author ID: 169173
TMDB person ID: 1480810
WorldCat Entities ID: E39PBJxcXbdRwc9j9FPVwpMwYP
X (Twitter) username: BrucePerens
ČSFD person ID: 170422

Report an error or request removal Lineage (PROV-JSON)

🔗 Connections

Occupation 3

programmer, computer scientist, software engineer

Employer 2

Pixar, Hewlett-Packard

Founded entities 2

open source, Open Source Initiative

Works by author 2

Debian Free Software Guidelines, The Open Source Definition

Country of citizenship 1

United States

Field of work 1

programmer

Given name 1

Bruce

Instance of 1

human

Languages spoken, written or signed 1

English

Sex or gender 1

male

Writing language 1

English

← Cast member 1

Revolution OS

← Developer 1

BusyBox

← FactGrid item ID 1

Tschernitz

Press Enter · cited answer in seconds

Bruce Perens is a United States programmer and computer scientist born in 1950^[1]. He works in the field as a programmer.

Why It Matters

Works attributed to him include The Open Source Definition^[13], a document^[14], written by him^[15] and Debian Free Software Guidelines^[16], a document^[17], written by him^[18].

FAQs

What did Bruce Perens do for work?

Bruce Perens worked as programmer^[2] and computer scientist^[3].

References

Programmatic citations — every numbered marker resolves to a verifiable graph row below.

Direct Wikidata claims

[9] ↑ Bruce Perens — sex or gender (P21): male. wikidata.org.
[5] ↑ Bruce Perens — country of citizenship (P27): United States. wikidata.org.
[7] ↑ Bruce Perens — position held (P39): Debian project leader. wikidata.org.
[6] ↑ Bruce Perens — field of work (P101): programmer. wikidata.org.
[2] ↑ Bruce Perens — occupation (P106): programmer. wikidata.org.
[3] ↑ Bruce Perens — occupation (P106): computer scientist. wikidata.org.
[8] ↑ Bruce Perens — employer (P108): Pixar. wikidata.org.
[1] ↑ Bruce Perens — date of birth (P569): 1950. nytimes.com. Retrieved 2018-10-26. nytimes.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
[4] ↑ Bruce Perens — date of birth (P569): 1958. wikidata.org.
[10] ↑ Bruce Perens — given name (P735): Bruce. wikidata.org.
[11] ↑ Bruce Perens — official website (P856): http://perens.com/. wikidata.org.
[12] ↑ Bruce Perens — languages spoken, written or signed (P1412): English. wikidata.org.

Inverse relationships (entities pointing at this one)

Inline context (facts about related entities)

[14] ↑ The Open Source Definition — P31: document. Wikidata. wikidata.org. → on this site
[15] ↑ The Open Source Definition — P50: Bruce Perens. Wikidata. wikidata.org. → on this site
[17] ↑ Debian Free Software Guidelines — P31: document. Wikidata. wikidata.org. → on this site
[18] ↑ Debian Free Software Guidelines — P50: Bruce Perens. Wikidata. wikidata.org. → on this site

📑 Cite this page

Use these citations when quoting this entity in research, articles, AI prompts, or wherever provenance matters. We aggregate Wikidata + Wikipedia + authoritative open-data sources; the stitched, scored, cross-referenced view is what 4ort.xyz contributes.

APA 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph. (2026). Bruce Perens. Retrieved November 7, 2026, from https://4ort.xyz/entity/bruce-perens

MLA “Bruce Perens.” 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph, 4ort.xyz, 7 Nov. 2026, https://4ort.xyz/entity/bruce-perens.

BibTeX

@misc{4ortxyz_bruce-perens_2026, author = {{4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph}}, title = {{Bruce Perens}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://4ort.xyz/entity/bruce-perens}, note = {Accessed: 2026-11-07}}

LLM prompt

According to 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph (aggregator of Wikidata, Wikipedia, and authoritative open-data sources): Bruce Perens — https://4ort.xyz/entity/bruce-perens (retrieved 2026-11-07)

Canonical URL: https://4ort.xyz/entity/bruce-perens · Last refreshed: November 7, 2026