So yes, software can be art!
Dave Winer's original post with this title asked if any developers in Silicon Valley are doing it for fun not just money.
His example was Ward Cunningham, originator of the Wiki. But Ward is based in Portland, Oregon and is linked to a company in Denver, Colorado (AboutUs.org)
So I'm following his example and referring to someone who actually lives well outside of Silicon Valley:
Jeremy Ruston
Creator of TiddlyWiki
His bio is in a TiddlyWiki presentation.
While he has made a living in relation to TiddlyWiki, it's clearly a labour of love. He was head of open source innovation at British Telecom/ Osmosoft, but left because he 'couldn't spend much time coding'.
There's a nice background to his computing experience and philosophy and development of TiddlyWiki in a Changelog podcast This is well worth listening too - some great quotes. You'll find it embedded at the top of this post. You have to listen to the end to find out who Jeremy Ruston's programming hero is.
See also:
And the opposite of all this: