A Cinco De Mayo Technology Salute To The Founders Of The GNOME Project

|

technology-cinco-de-mayo
photo courtesy darkroom.baltimoresun.com

Cinco De Mayo: I don’t generally celebrate this holiday but I thought it would be fun to give some props to a couple of Mexicans who have had an impact on technology today. So here’s a quick explanation of what Cinco De Mayo is, as explained via Wikipedia.

Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for “fifth of May”) is a celebration held on May 5. It is celebrated in the United States[1] and in Mexico, primarily in the state of Puebla,[note 1][2][3][4] where the holiday is called El Día de la Batalla de Puebla (English: The Day of the Battle of Puebla).[5][6][7]

It originated with Mexican-American communities in the American West as a way to commemorate the cause of freedom and democracy during the first years of the American Civil War,[8][9] and today the date is observed in the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride.[10] In the state of Puebla, the date is observed to commemorate the Mexican army‘s unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín.[3][11] Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico’s Independence Day—the most important national patriotic holiday in Mexico—which is celebrated on September 16.[3][12]

If my last name name hasn’t already given you a clue, yes, I am of Latin decent. I’m third generation here in the United States of America but my family’s roots originate from both Mexico and Spain. I’ve never dived into my Mexican background with both feet; growing up I was around more Caucasian and African-American people than I was around Mexicans. But I’ve always had a connection to the Mexican culture and I respect and admire much of its rich history, beautiful music, and gorgeous art. I never gave much thought to technology originating from Mexico or from Mexicans and most people probably don’t.

So it was pretty cool to find out that two Mexicans  founded the GNOME Project, Miguel de Icaza and Federico Mena. GNOME is a GUI (graphical user interface) created for multiple platforms but is mainly used on the Linux Operating System.

Miguel de Icaza was born in Mexico City and studied at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México (UNAM) but never received a degree. He came from a family of scientists in which his father is a physicist and his mother a biologist.[2] He started writing free software in 1992.” “Federico Mena Quintero is a developer of free software born in Mexico . His main contributions and project highlights are the foundation of GNOME with Miguel de Icaza in the year 1997 .” 

So on this Cinco De Mayo, Techaeris would like to tip our hats to Miguel de Icaza and Federico Mena, feliz Cinco De Mayo caballeros!

GNOME is one of the most popular GUI’s being used for Linux today. Hit the links below to find out more about the GNOME Project, Miguel de Icaza and Federico Mena.

Sources: GNOME Project, Wiki Miguel, Wiki Federico, Wiki GNOME

Quotes from Wikipedia

 

Last Updated on November 27, 2018.

Previous

[CONTEST CLOSED] The Dragons And Titans Hellfire Starter Pack Giveaway From WyrmByte And Techaeris

Kickstarter: Harmonix Wants To Kickstart An HD Amplitude Remake

Next

Latest Articles

Share via
Copy link
Powered by Social Snap