Rare Jon 'maddog' Hall Video Interview

lisa 'lisah' h writes "Looking natty in a yellow Tux vest, Linux dignitary John 'maddog' Hall agreed to a rare video interview with Robin 'Roblimo' Miller after speaking at a conference in Jacksonville, FL. The two chatted about the mobile phone project OpenMoko, his volunteer work with Linux International, and beer."

Comments

fraught peace

[Robert Y. Frost]

Two tankards filled with a yellow brew,
Parched but my thirst was not limitless.
Twixt nectar choose, sweet honeydew?
In time, the colder one I drew,
And that was frosty pissness.

Re:fraught peace

[moderatorrater]

:'( beautiful, just beautiful. To think we used to call you people trolls. :'(

Re:fraught peace

[Anonymous Coward]

The supreme court recently decided that you cant block trolls from speaking.. Terrorists (suspected or real ones)on the other hand have no such rights. Could this guy be a terrorist.. if so we can ban him. Isn't Nitroglycerine a yellow liquid?

Re:fraught peace

[Brian Gordon]

All we have to do is set up slashdot's robotic overlord in an abandoned movie theater and have it read aloud first posts. When inevitably one of them contains the word "fire", we can legally censor them.

"Linux dignitary"

[Anonymous Coward]

"Linux dignitary"? Is that like "MCSE"?

Re:"Linux dignitary"

[morgan_greywolf]

Yeah, but it pays a lot less.

Free Software

[Trogre]

Ahhh, one of my favourite quotes from this guy:

Of course we had free software back in the '60s. But back then we called it "software".

The Midichlorian count is high in this one

[Jugalator]

Whatever you do, don't mess with this guy and his beard of respectable size.

If you ever feel overly nerdy when using Linux, just give the men behind the OS a thought and you'll feel much better!

Language inventor or serial killer

[Nazlfrag]

Take the quiz!

I'm such a wuss

[xrayspx]

I saw his Jeep at my local supermarket a few weeks ago and was going to head back in and find him, or stick around until he headed out and offer him a 6-pack...Something.

I didn't want to look like that much a fanboy dorkass though, and wisely let it go. Would have been nice to thank the guy though I guess.

Re:I'm such a wuss

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks to our local LUG I got to sit next to Richard Stallman at dinner after a talk he gave in my city. He really was a very pleasant, interesting guy, but for the life of me I couldn't think of *anything* to say regarding software that wouldn't seem incredibly fawning and/or insipid to him, so I ended up mumbling something about Greek food (we were at a Greek restaurant) and left him to chat to the less starstruck person on his other side. I still kick myself about it from time to time (ouch!).

Re:I'm such a wuss

[Codifex Maximus]

Nah, I'd just wave and say hey Jon. Treat him like everyone else. He's a regular guy and pretty dang friendly if I remember correctly. Met him in Dallas back in 1999 or so at a Unix User's Group meeting; he patiently answered all of our questions. Can't for the life of me figure out why they call him maddog when he's so laid back and relaxed. :/

Re:I'm such a wuss

[pixr99]

Can't for the life of me figure out why they call him maddog when he's so laid back and relaxed. :/

You're right, he's very laid back. A long time ago, I asked him why they call him maddog. He told me the story over beer and pizza. If I recall correctly, he was teaching at a community college at the time and became enraged by something the administration had pulled. He reacted accordingly and his students dubbed him "maddog." Perhaps somebody with a fresher memory can fill in the details (or correct me).

I'll tell you what though, I've never met a kinder, more generous, more patient man. He's the reason I got into Linux. He spent the time to help me get my PC running Linux (it wasn't easy back in '95), gave me a hard copy Linux manual and, by example, taught me what Free Software was all about. And at the time, he was in charge of the UNIX Software Group at Digital!

Re:I'm such a wuss

[greedyturtle]

You should have asked him to order your food for you...

Re:I'm such a wuss

[xrayspx]

Hah yeah, nah, I'm not easily intimidated by developers, but I really didn't want to appear as some wackjob stalker. I should have camphone'd our vanity plates next to each other though. Ah well.

Re:I'm such a wuss

[bill_mcgonigle]

I saw his Jeep at my local supermarket a few weeks ago and was going to head back in and find him, or stick around until he headed out and offer him a 6-pack...Something.

My god, man, it's a Jeep - they're designed so you can just leave a six-pack on the front seat.

maddog

[Vorpix]

i'll always be fond of maddog, as it was a book he wrote, "Red Hat Linux for Dummies" in 1999 that gave me my first real introduction to Linux. it fostered an intense curiosity into open source software and Linux that remains with me to this day.

Kind of short

[CNERD]

Disappointingly short at only 5 minutes. He did a really interesting interview on FLOSS last year, that people might find more interesting.

Little Penguins wants another web integration

[Shadow-Copy]

This has been wanted for one or two Linux Third party developers... The ability to text they're Linux platform PC from theyre mobile phone or vice versa.. The surprised Motorola encryption writers implied graciously "I don't use a Linux, I use a Trane.. Why would you want to text your Air conditioner anyways .. don't they have remote controls for that?".. The Linux programmers gasped an went on strike, wait no, that was the union Writer's guild..
So Firefox developers continues asking that Motorola allow a web protocol file transaction tool for Linux, So that 7 or 8 Linux users can pc to phone or phone to pc using a Linux platform.. Which is very unfashionable, popularity wise, but might make one open source.. That later will most likely become obsolete from lack of usage within a year upon its release date, 'if' released..


In other news.. Is Linux turning into Windows?