Miguel de Icaza

De Icaza was born in Mexico City and studied Mathematics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), but dropped out before getting a degree to work in IT.{{Cite web|url=https://tirania.org/blog/archive/2009/Oct-19.html|title=10 years of Ximian - Miguel de Icaza|website=tirania.org}} He came from a family of scientists in which his father is a physicist and his mother a biologist.{{cite magazine|title=Interview{{sic|hide=y}} with Miguel De Icaza|url=http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6833|magazine=Linux Journal|access-date=2008-08-19}} He started writing free software in 1992.

One of the earliest pieces of software he wrote for Linux was the Midnight Commander file manager in 1994, a text-mode file manager.{{cite web | url = http://savannah.gnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/mc/mc/FAQ?rev=HEAD | title = Midnight Commander FAQ | author = Midnight Commander authors | access-date = 2010-09-06 | quote = Midnight Commander was started by Miguel de Icaza and he is the maintainer of the package. Other authors have joined the project later.}} He was also one of the early contributors to the Wine project.{{cite web|title=Wine History|url=http://wiki.winehq.org/WineHistory|publisher=wiki.winehq.org|access-date=2012-07-10}}

He worked with David S. Miller on the Linux SPARC port and wrote several of the video and network drivers in the port, as well as the libc ports to the platform.{{cite web | url = http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/ana97/summaries/miller_invite.html | title = The SPARC Port of Linux | author=David S. Miller, Rutgers CAIP, and Miguel de Icaza, Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico | work = Usenix Proceedings | year = 1997 | publisher = USENIX Association | access-date = 2010-04-18}} They both later worked on extending Linux for MIPS to run on SGI's Indy computers and wrote the original X drivers for the system.{{cite web | url = http://www.kneuro.net/cgi-bin/lxr/http/source/drivers/sgi/char/graphics.c | title = graphics.c | author = Miguel de Icaza | access-date = 2011-11-19 | quote = Author: Miguel de Icaza | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120121124314/http://www.kneuro.net/cgi-bin/lxr/http/source/drivers/sgi/char/graphics.c | archive-date = 2012-01-21 | url-status = dead }} With Ingo Molnár he wrote the original software implementation of RAID-1 and RAID-5 drivers of the Linux kernel.{{cite web | url = http://www.koders.com/c/fid90D0506D0981288C46C7A849BBB82C7276351E12.aspx?s=rsa | title = raid5.c | quote = Copyright: (C) 1996, 1997 Ingo Molnar, Miguel de Icaza, Gadi Oxman | access-date = 2011-11-19 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120124014446/http://www.koders.com/c/fid90D0506D0981288C46C7A849BBB82C7276351E12.aspx?s=rsa | archive-date = 2012-01-24 | url-status = dead }}

In summer of 1997, he was interviewed by Microsoft for a job in the Internet Explorer Unix team (to work on a SPARC port), but lacked the university degree required to obtain a work H-1B visa.{{cite web | url = http://nat.org/blog/2009/10/ | title = Startup Visa | first = Nat | last = Friedman | date = 2009-10-31 | access-date = 2010-09-06 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://archive.today/20140328013753/http://nat.org/blog/2009/10/ | archive-date = 2014-03-28 }} He said in an interview that he tried to persuade his interviewers to free the IE code even before Netscape did so with their own browser.{{Cite web|url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/library?url=/library/en-us/dndotnet/html/deicazainterview.asp|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020108174635/http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=%2Flibrary%2Fen-us%2Fdndotnet%2Fhtml%2Fdeicazainterview.asp|url-status=dead|title=Microsoft API and Reference Catalog|archive-date=January 8, 2002|website=msdn.microsoft.com}}

De Icaza started the GNOME project with Federico Mena in August 1997 to create a completely free desktop environment and component model for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems.{{cite book|title=Practical Mono|first=Mark|last=Mamone|page=7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YpIAry7MNCcC&q=Federico+Mena|publisher=Apress|year=2005|isbn=978-1-59059-548-0}} He also created the GNOME spreadsheet program, Gnumeric.

In 1999, de Icaza, along with Nat Friedman, co-founded Helix Code, a GNOME-oriented free software company that employed a large number of other GNOME hackers. In 2001, Helix Code, later renamed Ximian, announced the Mono Project, to be led by de Icaza, with the goal to implement Microsoft's new .NET development platform on Linux and Unix-like platforms. In August 2003, Ximian was acquired by Novell. There, de Icaza was Vice President of Developer Platform.

In May 2011, de Icaza started Xamarin to replace MonoTouch and Mono for Android after Novell was bought by Attachmate and the projects were abandoned. Shortly afterwards, Xamarin and Novell reached an agreement where Xamarin took over the development and sales of these products.Friedman, Nat. (2011-07-18) [http://blog.xamarin.com/2011/07/18/first-press-release/ Xamarin mobile products available now! | Xamarin Blog] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111110234152/http://blog.xamarin.com/2011/07/18/first-press-release/ |date=2011-11-10 }}. Blog.xamarin.com. Retrieved on 2013-09-19.

In February 2016, Xamarin announced being acquired by Microsoft.{{Cite web|url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/xamarin/|title=Xamarin Blog|website=Xamarin Blog}} One month later at the Microsoft Build conference, it was announced that the Mono Project would be relicensed to MIT, Visual Studio would include Xamarin (even the free versions) without restrictions, and Xamarin SDKs would be opensourced.

De Icaza endorsed Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) document standard,{{cite web|title=OOXML. (Score:4, Informative)|url=http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=293507&cid=20547277|publisher=Slashdot|access-date=2008-08-19}}{{Cite web|url=https://tirania.org/blog/archive/2007/Jan-30.html|title=The EU Prosecutors are Wrong. - Miguel de Icaza|website=tirania.org}}{{Cite web|url=https://tirania.org/blog/archive/2008/Apr-02.html|title=OOXML: The Wins - Miguel de Icaza|website=tirania.org}} disagreeing with a lot of the widespread criticism in the open source and free-software community.

He also developed Mono – a free and open-source alternative to Microsoft's .NET Framework – for GNOME.{{cite web|title=Mono and Gnome: The Long Reply|url=http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-02-06-011-20-OP-GN-MS|publisher=LinuxToday|access-date=2010-01-15|archive-date=2012-03-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309114022/http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-02-06-011-20-OP-GN-MS|url-status=dead}} This has raised much disagreement due to the patents that Microsoft holds on the .NET Framework.

De Icaza was criticized by Richard Stallman on the Software Freedom Day 2009, who labeled him as "Traitor to the Free Software Community".{{cite web|url=http://www.osnews.com/story/22225/RMS_De_Icaza_Traitor_to_Free_Software_Community/|date=2009-09-21|title=RMS: De Icaza Traitor to Free Software Community|first=Thom |last=Holwerda |access-date=2012-11-19|publisher=osnews.com}} Icaza responded on his blog to Stallman with the remark that he believes in a "world of possibility" and that he is open for discussions on ways to improve the pool of open source and free software.{{cite web|url=http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2009/Sep-23.html |title=On Richard Stallman|first=Miguel|last=de Icaza|quote=I want to say that God loves all creatures. From the formidable elephant to the tiniest ant. And that includes Richard Stallman. As for me, I think that there is a world of possibility, and if Richard wants to discuss how we can improve the pool of open source/free software in the world he has my email address. Love, Miguel.|publisher=tirania.org}}

In August 2012, de Icaza criticized the Linux desktop as "killed by Apple". De Icaza specifically criticized a generally developer-focused culture, lack of backward compatibility, and fragmentation among the various Linux distributions.{{cite web|url=https://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/08/osx-killed-linux/| title= How Apple Killed the Linux Desktop and Why That Doesn't Matter|first=Klint |last=Finley|publisher=wired.com |date=2012-08-27 |access-date=2012-09-02}}{{cite web|url=http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2012/Aug-29.html| first=Miguel|last=de Icaza|title=What Killed the Linux Desktop|publisher=tirania.org |date=2012-08-29 |access-date=2012-08-30}} In March 2013, de Icaza announced on his personal blog that he regularly used macOS instead of Linux for desktop computing.{{cite web|url=http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2013/Mar-05.html| first=Miguel|last=de Icaza|title=How I ended up with Mac |publisher=tirania.org |date=2013-03-05 |access-date=2013-03-05}}

In 2014 he joined Anders Hejlsberg on stage during the announcements of the .NET Foundation and the open sourcing of Microsoft's C# Compiler. He went on to serve on the board of directors of the .NET Foundation.[http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140403006500/en/Microsoft-Xamarin-Collaborate-Establish-.NET-Foundation Microsoft-Xamarin-Collaborate-Establish-.NET-Foundation] (2014)[https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/12/release_microsoft_net_from_its_windows_chains_mono_and_xamarin_guy_miguel_de_icaza_on_open_source_net/ Microsoft .NET released from its Windows chains... but what ABOUT MONO?] on theregister.co.uk "Xamarin is a close partner of Microsoft, and De Icaza is one of three directors of the .NET Foundation, and the only director that does not work for Microsoft. The .NET Foundation was announced by Microsoft at its Build conference earlier this year, to host and support open source .NET projects." by Tim Anderson (Nov 2014)

In March 2022 he announced he was leaving Microsoft and taking some time off.{{cite news |last1=Foley |first1=Mary Jo |title=Former Xamarin co-founder Miguel de Icaza is leaving Microsoft |url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/former-xamarin-co-founder-miguel-de-icaza-is-leaving-microsoft/ |work=ZDNet |date=2 March 2022}}

Miguel de Icaza has received the Free Software Foundation 1999 Award for the Advancement of Free Software, the MIT Technology Review Innovator of the Year Award 1999,{{cite web|url=http://www.technologyreview.com/TR35/?year=1999|title=1999 Young Innovators Under 35|quote=1999 Innovator of the Year: Miguel De Icaza|year=1999|access-date=2012-09-02|publisher=technologyreview.com}} and was named one of Time magazine's 100 innovators for the new century in September 2000.

In early 2010 he received a Microsoft MVP Award.{{cite web|title=Miguel de Icaza's web log|url=http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2010/Jan-11-1.html|access-date=2010-01-14}}

In March 2010, he was named as the fifth in the "Most Powerful Voices in Open Source" by MindTouch.{{cite web|title=MindTouch.com|url=http://www.mindtouch.com/blog/2010/03/17/mpv/|access-date=2010-03-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121031130307/http://www.mindtouch.com/blog/2010/03/17/mpv/|archive-date=2012-10-31|url-status=dead}}

De Icaza has had cameo appearances in the 2001 motion pictures Antitrust and The Code.{{IMDb name|208899}}

He married Maria Laura Soares da Silva (now Maria Laura de Icaza) in 2003.{{cite web|first=Miguel|last=De Icaza|url=https://tirania.org/blog/archive/2003/Aug-22.html|title=Married - Miguel De Icaza|date=2003-08-22|access-date=2024-08-26}} They have three children.{{cite web|url=https://x.com/migueldeicaza/status/494468138548801539|title=De Icaza mentions his children|date=2022-02-18|website=Miguel de Icaza's Twitter}} He has been living in the state of Massachusetts for 20 years.

De Icaza and his wife are critical of the actions of the state of Israel towards the Palestinians in the Middle East and has blogged about the subject and visited the area of conflict as well.[http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2002/Sep-03.html Israel: terrorist state. - Miguel de Icaza]. Tirania.org (2002-09-03). Retrieved on 2013-09-19.

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