Jon "maddog" Hall is the Executive Director of Linux International [1], a non-profit organization of computer vendors who wish to support and promote the Linux operating system. The nickname "maddog" was given to him by his students at Hartford State Technical College, where he was the Department Head of Computer Science. He now prefers to be called by this name. According to Hall, his nickname "came from a time when I had less control over my temper." Image File history File links Download high resolution version (609x800, 88 KB) Jon Maddog Hall, one of the founders of the open source movement Jon Hall consented to the publication of this image under the GNU-FDL. Image by de:Benutzer:marcela Technical Data: Canon EOS5 mit Sigma 2,8... Linux International is a non-profit association of groups, corporations and others that work towards the promotion of growth of the Linux operating system and the Linux community. ... A nonprofit organization (sometimes abbreviated to not-for-profit, non-profit, or NPO) is an organization whose primary objective is to support some issue or matter of private interest or public concern for non-commercial purposes. ... Linux (also known as GNU/Linux) is a computer operating system. ... An operating system (OS) is an essential software program that manages the hardware and software resources of a computer. ...

At the age of four, Hall stuck the wires from a rabbit-ear television antenna into an electric socket which sent him flying across the room. Acknowledging the power of technology, Hall went on to forge a career and life based around it. During his thirty year career, Hall has been a programmer, systems designer, systems administrator, product manager, technical marketing manager, author, consultant to local, state and national governments worldwide and college educator. He has worked for such companies as Western Electric Corporation, Aetna Life and Casualty, Bell Laboratories, Digital Equipment Corporation, VA Linux Systems, and SGI. He is currently an industry consultant. A programmer or software developer is someone who programs computers, i. ... A system administrator is a person responsible for running, or running some aspect of, a computer system. ... Aetna (Aetna Inc. ... Bell Telephone Laboratories or Bell Labs was originally the research and development arm of the United States Bell System, and was the premier corporate facility of its type, developing a range of revolutionary technologies from telephone switches to specialized coverings for telephone cables, to the transistor. ... Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering company in the American computer industry. ... LNUX stock price (09-Dec-1999 through 09-Dec-2000) VA Software Corporation (NASDAQ: LNUX), formerly VA Linux Systems (and VA Research before that), is the provider of the SourceForge Development Intelligence application. ... SGI is a TLA for at least three separate entities: Saskatchewan Government Insurance Scientific Games International Silicon Graphics, Incorporated Soka Gakkai International This page expands a three-character combination which might be any or all of: an abbreviation, an acronym, an initialism, a word in English, or a word in...

It was during his time with Digital that he initially became interested in Linux, and was instrumental in obtaining equipment and resources for Linus Torvalds to accomplish his first port, to Digital's Alpha platform. It was also in this general timeframe that Hall, who lives in New Hampshire, started the General New Hampshire Linux Users' Group. Linus Benedict Torvalds (born December 28, 1969 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish software engineer best known for initiating the development of Linux. ... A Linux User Group (LUG) is a private, generally non-profit or not-for-profit organization that provides support and/or education for Linux users, particularly for inexperienced users. ...

Hall serves on the boards of several companies, and several non-profit organizations, including the USENIX Association. He is a well known elder statesman of the programming community, and a leader of the open source movement. Hall holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1977) and a Bachelor of Science in Commerce and Engineering from Drexel University (1973). The USENIX Association is the Advanced Computing Technical Association. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... A masters degree is an academic degree usually awarded for completion of a postgraduate course of one or two years in duration. ... Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI, is a private university in Troy, New York, near Albany, founded in 1824 by Stephen Van Rensselaer. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... A Bachelor of Science (B.S., B.Sc. ... Drexel University is an institution of higher learning located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ...

External links

• Jon 'Maddog' Hall at 2003 FOSDEM
• Computerworld interview with "maddog"
• Interview with Jon Hall at the LinuxTag in Karlsruhe by RadioTux
• An Interview with Jon "Maddog" Hall, Executive Director of Linux International, at Linux World in Mexico City