For any who don't follow the Linux kernel closely, Maddog is an absolute legend.
His perspective is very interesting and appreciated, especially love how he frames things historically. Knowing the history really helps put things in context. TFA is long, but worth reading.
Jon Hall was essentially Linus Torvalds' agent in the 90s. While at DEC, he got Linus to the right places and meet the right people, so that his "hobby, nothing big or professional" OS entered the trajectory to become what we know today.
I'm about 30 years younger than Jon Hall, so I couldn't be familiar with his accomplishments other than by oral/written accounts. Since he hasn't written big hit books I could read or software I could use (alright alright, Linux for Dummies), I constantly saw people calling him a legend but never understood why. I finally asked around in the Linux kernel community, and was explained the extent of his contribution: he was Linus' mentor in a way. When they met in 1994, Linus was a 25 yo student and Jon a 44 yo DEC marketing manager. I like to think of their conversation as something like "Listen to me kid, this is what you gonna do".
With this in mind, a line in Jon Hall's wikipedia bio stands out: 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.. Another one in his linkedin work history reflects this view: Senior Marketing Manager, DEC, 1983-1998: In 1994 met Linus Torvalds, recognized commercial value of Linux, obtained funding for port of Linux to 64-bit Alpha processor, opening up a billion dollar line of Linux-based High Performance Computing Super Computers.
While on an Alpha team at DEC, I was in a meeting when maddog walked in, and I fanboyed a bit- he was the first famous "computer person" I'd ever met. My boss was with me, and I had to explain to him who he was. I've also seen him on the highway with his New Hampshire "Live Free or Die" UNIX plate.
You are correct - I have the same book with the CD of RHL still stuck to the back. I don’t think I ever installed it, but I did install Mandrake Linux and used the dummy book to learn it. Why such an odd distro like Mandrake? I literally found it on the shelf in a Best Buy. I was already a heavy Unix user at work (we all had dumb terminals running Solaris) and I really wanted that experience on my personal system, thus started my
life-long love for Linux.
My first desktop Linux is Mandrake too. Reason? It had KDE. It looked like Windows. I've recently come back to KDE by way of OpenSuse. Both decisions surprise even myself. I never thought I'd use an rpm based distro again. (I am using Tumbleweed. Rolling updates+snapper snapshots on btrfs is what sold it to me. I would prefer zfs but had no issues with btrfs yet in two years)
Hey, I also first installed Mandrake. I got it in on a magazine. I always a thought it was a common distro, kinda like ubuntu some years later when they started shipping disks
I’ve always admired Maddog and I was lucky enough to meet him when I was in my early twenties at a Linux conference in Birmingham, UK. I bought him a coffee and even though I earned a pittance and couldn’t afford my own coffee at the time, I felt it was a badge of honour and afforded me 5 minutes of chat with this giant of computing.
His perspective is very interesting and appreciated, especially love how he frames things historically. Knowing the history really helps put things in context. TFA is long, but worth reading.