John McAfee

British-American programmer and businessman (1945–2021)

  • Fame58.4
  • Momentum0.0
  • Developers rank#62
Source-basedFalling
  • Fame58.4
  • Momentum0.0
  • Developers rank#62
  • Wikipedia67.5K
Lived 1945–2021, aged 76United States
  • Wikipedia
    42 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Era
    1945–2021
    Aged 76
  • Known for
    Running with the Devil…
    2022
Summary
Updated 2026-06-21

John David McAfee was a British and American computer programmer, businessman, and two-time U.S. presidential candidate who unsuccessfully sought the Libertarian Party nomination for president of the United States in 2016 and in 2020. In 1987, he wrote the first commercial anti-virus software, founding McAfee Associates to sell his creation. He resigned in 1994 and sold his remaining stake in the company. McAfee became the company's most vocal critic in later years, urging consumers to uninstall the company's anti-virus software, which he characterized as bloatware. He disavowed the company's continued use of his name in branding, a practice that has persisted in spite of a short-lived corporate rebrand attempt under Intel ownership.

By the numbers

Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Falling
58.4
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Historical25.1
Now attention4.9
Source confidence80.0
Completeness90.0
Global rank
Country rank
Category rank
#62
Receipts

Sources