A Quarter Century of Linux, and why you should care

Speaker: Jon "Maddog" Hall

Abstract

In September of this year we celebrate twenty-five years since Linus posted the first tar-ball of code that eventually became the Linux kernel, and with it the acceleration of Free Software and Open Source. This talk will examine the fragility of that moment and the often neglected paths that brought us to where we are today.

Biography

Maddog started writing code in 1969, the same year that the Arpanet, Unix and Linus were born. He received his BS in Commerce and Engineering (Drexel University, 1973) and later his MS in Computer Science (RPI, 1977).

He has worked for very large companies (Western Electric, Bell Laboratories, Aetna Life and Casualty, Digital Equipment Corporation, SGI) and very small ones as a programmer, systems administrator, product manager, technical marketing manager, consultant, and educator.

He taught at the university level three and one-half years full time and four years part time, has written many articles for magazines and one book, “Linux For Dummies”.

Currently he is doing consulting for Linaro and is the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Linux Professional Institute.