Editing Andrew Morton (computer programmer)

{{short description|Australian software engineer (born 1959)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Andrew Keith Paul Morton
| image       = AndrewMorton-1.jpg
| image_size  = 
| caption     = Andrew Morton speaking at Interop, [[Moscow]], 2008
| birth_name  = 
| birth_date  = {{birth date and age|1959|7|15}}
| birth_place = [[England]]
| death_date  = 
| death_place = 
| death_cause = 
| nationality = [[Australia]]n
| other_names = akpm
| known_for   = -[[mm tree]]
| education   = [[Electrical engineering]]
| employer    = [[Google]]
| occupation  = [[Programmer]]
| spouse      = Kathryn Morton
| children    = Victoria Morton, Michael Morton, Matthew Morton
| parents     = Prof. David Morton (deceased)
| website     =
| footnotes   = 
}}
'''Andrew Keith Paul Morton''' (born 1959) is an Australian [[Software engineering|software engineer]]. He is one of the lead developers of the [[Linux kernel]], and a co-maintainer of the [[Ext3]] file system, the [[journaling file system|journaling]] layer for [[block device]]s (JBD) and memory management.

==Biography==
In the late 1980s, he was one of the partners of a company in [[Sydney, Australia]] that produced a kit computer called the [[Applix 1616]], as well as a hardware engineer for the now-defunct Australian gaming equipment manufacturer Keno Computer Systems. He holds an [[Honours degree#Honours degrees and academic distinctions|honours degree]] in [[electrical engineering]] from the [[University of New South Wales]] in Australia.

Morton maintains a Linux kernel patchset known as the [[mm tree|''mm'' tree]], which contains work-in-progress patches that might later be accepted into the official Linux tree maintained by [[Linus Torvalds]].  "mm" as a primary testing ground became unmanageably large and busy, and in 2008 the "linux-next" tree was created to fill much of this role.

In 2001, Morton and his family moved from [[Wollongong, New South Wales]] to [[Palo Alto, California]].{{fact|date=June 2024}} In July 2003, he joined the [[OSDL|Open Source Development Labs]] under an agreement with his then-employer Digeo Inc. (makers of the [[Moxi (DVR)|Moxi]] home entertainment media center), in which OSDL supported Morton's Linux kernel development work while he continued in his official role as principal engineer at Digeo.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS5459090567.html |title=linuxdevices.com - OSDL adds Andrew Morton, Linux kernel maintainer, to its resources |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114151900/http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS5459090567.html |archivedate=2009-01-14 }}</ref> 

Since August 2006, Morton has been employed by [[Google]] and continues his current work in maintaining the kernel.<ref>[https://lkml.org/lkml/2006/8/6/16 Linux kernel mailing list], August 6, 2006</ref><ref>[http://www.linuxtoday.com/developer/2006080303126NWCYKN Linux Today] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190220062048/https://www.linuxtoday.com/developer/2006080303126NWCYKN |date=20 February 2019 }}, August 3, 2006</ref>

Morton delivered the keynote speech at the 2004 Ottawa Linux Symposium. He was also a featured speaker at [[MontaVista]] Software's Vision 2007 Conference.<ref>[http://www.mvista.com/vision/index.html MontaVista VISION 2007 Embedded Linux Developers Conference<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207023642/http://www.mvista.com/vision/index.html |date=February 7, 2012 }}</ref> He was an expert witness in the ''[[SCO v. IBM]]'' lawsuit contesting [[UNIX]] copyrights.<ref>[http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060719122732946 Groklaw], July 19, 2006</ref>

Morton is also known by his username ''akpm'', as found in e-mail addresses and as part of the URL to his now-defunct webpage. On being asked what the initials KP stood for, he replied, "Some say 'Kernel Programmer.'  My parents said 'Keith Paul.'"<ref>[https://lkml.org/lkml/2007/5/10/459 LKML: Andrew Morton: Re: Please revert 5b479c91da90eef605f851508744bfe8269591a0 (md partition rescan)<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons|Andrew Morton}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070623084631/http://kerneltrap.org/node/10 Interview: Andrew Morton]; Jeremy Andrews; Kerneltrap; February 14, 2002.
*[http://www.linuxworld.com.au/pp.php?id=1546887162&taxid=24 Interview]{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }};  Nadia Cameron; LinuxWorld; July 16, 2003.
*[http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20040802115731932 Keynote speech; Ottawa Linux Symposium, 2004]
*[http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39267255,00.htm Interview] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725121632/http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39267255,00.htm |date=25 July 2008 }};  Ingrid Marson; ZDNet UK; May 5, 2006.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20081014010004/http://www.fosdem.org/2007/interview/andrew%2Bmorton Interview]; Fosdem Conference; Feb 06, 2007.
*[http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail594.html Audio of Talk at SDForum]
*[http://www.linux-magazin.de/news/video_andrew_morton_im_interview Video with Andrew Morton at Hannover Industry Trade Fair, Germany, May 2008]
*[http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/ Link to his patches]
*[http://userweb.kernel.org/~akpm/mmotm/ Link to his own kernel tree]{{dead link|date=April 2016}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080504002242/http://www.zipworld.com.au/~akpm/ Archive of his now-defunct webpage], hosted by [[Internet Archive]]

{{Linux}}
{{Linux kernel}}
{{Linux people}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morton, Andrew}}
[[Category:1959 births]]
[[Category:Australian computer programmers]]
[[Category:Free software programmers]]
[[Category:Google employees]]
[[Category:Linux kernel programmers]]
[[Category:Living people]]