Top 10 IT heroes

2. Richard Stallman
Shaun Nichols: Some of our top IT heroes excelled in writing great code. Others did an exceptional job managing institutions and programmes, and yet others were known for their ability to guide new ideas in the industry. Richard Stallman did all three.

Stallman cut his teeth in the 1970s at a time when 'hacker' wasn't a bad word and programmers shared code among themselves and worked together to solve problems. As the IT industry began to explode, however, companies began to view code as a valuable asset and started to block others from using their intellectual property.

This miffed Stallman, and prompted the MIT professor to kick off a project known as GNU, which sought to build and maintain a computing platform where anyone could lift up the hood and tinker with the underlying source code. That, in turn, led to the creation of the GNU General Public Licence and the Free Software Foundation, two of the most important components in today's open source software world.

These days, just about every computer runs a program or component which uses a form of the GPL, and Stallman's vision of an open source platform has come to life as Linux.

Iain Thomson: Stallman is that most dangerous of creatures: a zealot. He found a cause he believes in so strongly that he has devoted his life to it. He even has the old testament prophet look about him.

Maybe it's fortunate that a knee injury forestalled a promising career in folk dancing (no, really). Otherwise we'd have hordes of morris dancers thronging the streets and the night air would be full of the tinkling of bells and the crack of willow sticks. Thankfully for the world he chose software for his zealotry.

His cause was just and his skills are many. Commercial companies can hate him because he's espousing a way of life that would see them weaned off fat profits, but they still use his code and he's fine with that, so long as they obey his rules. When they don't he is happy to hold their toes over the fire until they play by the rules.

Despite the rumours that he sleeps with a katana under the bed to battle Microsoft ninja assassins, Stallman still lives an unassuming life and continues to work on his cause. He's not going to stop until we all use free software or he loses his saving throw with the great programmer in the sky.

1. Steve Wozniak
Iain Thomson: In the great family of IT Steve Wozniak is the kindly uncle figure, overseeing it all with a cheery grin and unkempt clothes and helping out with things that need doing.

What can you say about a painfully shy man who invented a computer just so people would talk to him at a computer club, who wrote an entire operating system longhand and was so scrupulously honest that he offered the initial Apple designs to his employer because he had worked on it in office hours (HP turned him down)? He even gets stellar scores on Tetris, his favourite computer game.

However, having made lots of money he then lived in modest style. Yes there are certain extravagances, Segway polo for one, but he's spent colossal amounts of time teaching children how to use computers and providing technical support for his local community. I mean, how cool is that, to have Woz getting your back for computer problems.

On a final note anyone who saw his performances on Dancing with the Stars can have little doubt that Woz is cast in a heroic mould. Despite injuries, and a complete lack of ability, he soldiered on with the brightest smile of the competition, although that may have had something to do with getting his arms around the delectable Karina Smirnoff.

Shaun Nichols: I've said this before and I'll say it again. Woz is the sort of successful geek we all like to imagine that we'd become (perhaps minus the ex-wives).

First, he created a truly brilliant and revolutionary product in the Apple I and Apple II computers. Then, he stayed with the company and managed his money wisely enough to build the type of fortune that allows one to retire at an early age with very few worries.

But then, like our other heroes, Woz kept doing great things. He went back to school to finish his degree, then he went into teaching. Even today he continues to be involved in charities and educational programmes for underprivileged kids, and online he'd remained a staunch advocate for free and open sharing of information.

In the end, Woz gets the top spot because he personifies what an IT hero truly is. Not just an admirable scientist and inventor, but an admirable person. He's a kind, honest man of good character that we all can not only admire, but truly relate to.

And yes, there's the small matter of being a goofy old nerd that still gets to cozy up with gorgeous Ukranian dancers.