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Interview/Article On John "Maddog" Hall
mister_nate sent us a really cool interview with Jon "Maddog" Hall. I've said this before, but Maddog is the perfect Linux advocate. A lot of Slashdot readers (and I definitely include myself in this statement) can learn a lot by watching the way Jon handles Linux Advocacy. It's amazing.
IMHO posters to Slashdot should be able to create their own impromptu polls. So that in the post above, you'd actually be able to vote for the options and see the results, then post more comments on them.
It could get kinda stupid, but moderation will hopefully make sure that interesting or funny polls get moderated up, and stupid ones get moderated down.
What I'm thinking of is a new posting option, 'Minipoll', where you enter some XML into the comment submission box which Slashdot process and puts as a set of radio boxes inlined with your comment.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
...Vancouver, where MGM is filming a movie about an open-source hero battling a Pacific Northwest software monopoly
???
I can just see it now;
It's a deadly game of cat-and-mouse between a suave European programmer/secret agent and a dweeby billionare who's half-man, half-machine and bent on world domination at any cost. Linus Torvalds is... The Torvinator!!!
I think they should cast Tom Hanks as Linus and Quentin Tarantino as Bill Gates. But that's just me.
Netscape, sure, but what Open Source software has Oracle released? (I could just be uninformed, so feel free to enlighten me).
It's amazing how that article was able to allegedly cover the beginnings of the GNU/Linux movement, and *never* once mentioned the words "FSF", "Richard M. Stallman", or "GNU". The article makes it seem like Linus wrote the kernel, and all the rest of the GNU software kind of just 'appeared' out of thin air! I'm no FSF fanatic, but I think that RMS et al have a point. It's articles like this that make me think we should try to emphasize 'GNU/Linux' over just 'Linux'. And 'Free Software', rather than just 'Open Source'.
"What are your pet projects?"
1) Mouse support for vi
2) Making the world safe for pee cees
3) Petrefing household pets
4) Studing the Zen wisdom of CowboyNeal
"How many hours each day do you spend at work?"
1) 8
2) 10
3) 12
4) 23.5
What's your work space like?
1) Cubicle
2) Janitor closet 2.0
3) Basement ("Maybe I should burn the place down")
4) I decorate with a hand grenade..like it?
"(Number of Linux computers, number of computers without a case, number of Windows machines (and why), number of monitors, etc.)"
[I'll let the hungry masses fill in that one..]
How about favorite beers?
1) Bud
2) Coors
3) Anything German
4) Anything Microbrewed
5) Whatever CmdrTaco is ordering
And who says polls are getting stale!
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
I may have to bite the interviewer on the leg for calling us that! (grrrh)
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
postmoderncore - art and creation are a higher purpose
I thought the article was severly lacking (check out the /. interview for many more interesting words from da man. A couple of blurbs from maddog, and several inacuracies in their relating of computer history, like:
:)
Unix became the system of choice for developers in the flowering of the microcomputer world, partly because much of it could be shared freely between programmers.
This is simply not true. When I was a little geek with my Amiga, me and my friends used to speculate what this fabled UNIX, Internet and TCP/IP was all about. There was no way a small time enthousiast could access a UNIX system outside of academia or business until Linux came along.
This is the real power of Linux to me. It brought the power and complexity of Unix to microcomputers at a *really* low price.
"People come up (at technology seminars) and say, 'It's just like it was back in the early days. This is the way Unix was 20 years ago, and it feels so good. Like something was ripped out of your body 20 years ago and now it's been put back,' " said Hall.
This blurb just made my day. I've read the jargon file, about the feats of the early Unix and internet gurus like Kernigham, Thompson, Vint Cerf, Bob Kahn etc. countless times, and I've always felt a like I had missed the real computer revolution, that it would only settle down from then on. Hearing this from a guy who's been there and seen it is just great. These are great times we live in
And I won't spare you with the funniest one I saw:
An ill-structured but worldwide community soon sprang up to write software tools and add-ons that would make Linux useful in the real world, creating a phenomenon so powerful that Microsoft has expressed concern about erosion of its Windows franchise.
ROFLMAO! Ooooh. They expressed concern. Imagine that, a couple hundred crazy bearded programming anarchists are out to create an OS the way they think it should be, giving it away for free and creating a vocal community around it. Some guys even manage to make money out of it. We damn better do something about that, right? Can't let all this unorderly creativity cut into our 5 year plan can we?
Hehe. (Sorry for the "rabid zealotry" at the end...)
I strongly believe that trying to be clever is detrimental to your health. -- Linus Torvalds
This past spring John came and gave a lecture for the ACM Chapter at Bucknell University, which I run. He's was nothing short of incredible for the 2 days we spent with him. Very on-the-ball about everything, not to mention a really nice guy. He definately sees the bigger picture.
Pictures are available at http://penguinempire.n3.net
Most fun was going to the bar after the talk. The man drank us all under the table - and told the most interesting stories about various places throughout the world.
If you get a chance to meet him, make the effort.