VII · Modern builders
Solomon Hykes
1983–
Co-founder of Docker · now Dagger · ex-dotCloud
Gave us
Docker (2013). Took kernel features that had existed for years (cgroups, namespaces, union mounts) and wrapped them in a Dockerfile and a CLI normal humans could use. Containerised the industry in roughly 18 months.
The story
Demoed Docker for the first time at PyCon 2013 in a five-minute lightning talk. The talk now has its own folklore status; many engineers remember exactly where they were when they first ran "docker run". Left Docker Inc. in 2018, building Dagger now.
"The best thing about containers is that you can run them anywhere. The worst thing is that you have to."
One more thing
Reportedly answers "what is a container?" with a five-minute philosophy lecture, then a one-liner.