flameeyes

I've been watching this guy's blog for a while and have come to realize that he is doing a whole lot for the open source software and particularly Linux. His work directly involves Gentoo, but many of his fixes make their way up stream.

His specialty is in the configuration of packages, and he talks on his blog about the various things that he's worked on, and why autotools work, problems with other systems, and so on. He is an autotools expert which is why his fixes make their way upstream. I think the autotools part of the packaging can be the most complicated, and difficult parts to get right, since you don't know until it's released whether it will work for anyone but you. Part of his work is in helping other people understand the best practices of using autotools http://www.flameeyes.eu/autotools-mythbuster/

His website is http://www.flameeyes.eu/home and he does take Donations, either to himself or to the national Pancreas Foundation.