An evening with maddog
Channel: Michigan!/Usr/Group
Date: 12/08/2020

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An evening with maddog

maddog (also known as Jon "maddog" Hall) has been programming since 1969, the same year that Unix was invented.   Although he did not use Unix until 1980 (he wanted Ken and Dennis to get out all the bugs) he has used either Unix or GNU/Linux since that time.

Tonight he will be talking about his early days in programming, but he will only bore you with about 30 minutes of that, just enough to let you wet your lips, then we will open up to a question and answer session for the rest of the time, after he opens his beer(s).

maddog will be speaking from his palatial estate deep in the heart of New Hampshire.

 

Jon "maddog" Hall currently is the Board Chair of the Linux Professional Institute, Co-founder and Senior Adviser to Caninos Loucos and the President of Project Cauã.

During his career in commercial computing which started in 1969 (over a half-century ago), Mr. Hall has been a programmer, systems designer, systems administrator, product manager, technical marketing manager, educator, CEO and consultant.

He has worked for such companies as Western Electric Corporation, Aetna Life and Casualty, Bell Laboratories, Digital Equipment Corporation, VA Linux Systems, SGI and Futura Networks (Campus Party) as well as being a private consultant.

Mr Hall has worked on many systems, both proprietary and open, having concentrated on Unix systems since 1980 and Linux systems since 1994 (a quarter century ago), when he first met Linus Torvalds and correctly recognized the commercial importance of Linux and Free and Open Source Software.

He has taught at Hartford State Technical College, Merrimack College and Daniel Webster College.  He still likes talking to students over pizza and beer (the pizza can be optional).

Mr. Hall is the author of numerous magazine and newspaper articles, many presentations and one book, "Linux for Dummies".  He currently writes a monthly article for Linux Pro Magazine and occasionally blogs for them on their web site.

Mr. Hall has consulted with the governments of China, Malaysia, Canada and Brazil as well as the United Nations and many local and state governments on the use of Free and Open Source Software.

Mr. Hall has served and serves on the boards of several companies, universities and several non-profit organizations.  He is currently very active with the University of Sao Paulo's Centro Interdisciplinar Em Tecnologias Interativas (CITI), acting as a member of their advisory board.  Mr. Hall is also the Board Chair of the Linux Professional Institute, the world's premier Open Source Certification organization, and is the senior advisor and co-founder of Caninos Loucos, bringing inexpensive, locally designed and manufactured single board computers to Brazil.  He is also the President of Project Caua.

Mr. Hall has traveled the world (over 100 countries) speaking on the benefits of Free and Open Source Software, and received his BS in Commerce and Engineering from Drexel University (1973), and his MSCS from RPI in Troy, New York (1977).

 

We're honored and thrilled to have maddog come speak with us for our August meeting. Fans of Unix and GNU/Linux history and folks interested in what lies ahead won't want to miss this presentation.