Interview: Ask Jon "maddog" Hall What You Will 26
It's been over 13 years since we did a Q&A with Linux International executive director Jon "maddog" Hall. For decades, maddog has been one of the highest profile advocates for free and open source software. He is currently working on Project Caua which aims "to promote more efficient computing following the thin client/server model, while creating up to two million privately-funded high-tech jobs in Brazil, and another three to four million in the rest of Latin America." He's also gearing up for FISL in Brazil, and helping to plan the FOSS part of Campus Party Europe in London. maddog has graciously agreed to find time to answer some of your questions. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one question per post.
On Project Cauã (Score:1)
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The magic of the free market is that people don't depend on magic.
Capitalism is merely the observation that capital (i.e., any resource, such as money, land, labor, etc.) is best allocated not by, say, the bureaucrat who takes it by decree, but rather by the one who—through voluntary interaction—gained control of that capital in the first place. That's it.
More capitalism means more freedom, and more freedom means faster progress in all aspects of life; under a free market, each person realizes h
New Hampshire License Plate (Score:3)
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Your perspective on Bitcoin et al. (Score:3)
Ask Jon "maddog" Hall What You Will (Score:5, Funny)
The transition to SoC-based “content devices (Score:4, Interesting)
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Do you find that having unusual characters in your name helps with name recognition and memory?
There are four of them famous enough to have a wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Hall_(disambiguation) [wikipedia.org]
11 if you count the Jonathans: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Hall_(disambiguation) [wikipedia.org]
and I'm not even counting the Johns: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hall_(disambiguation) [wikipedia.org]
...The dude has a need to differentiate with a name like that.
Making money off FOSS (Score:3)
Long term, do you see any other ways in which one can make money on FOSS?
Thin client server (Score:3)
My question is, why do we need thin client/server in an age where a decent computer surely costs about the same as some kind of thin client anyway? I can see benefits in a specialized scenario where you need access to vast computing power, but for every day people in an apartment complex, web browsing and reading mail, why is it necessary, and doesn't it in fact add a lot of complexity for little gain, not to mention administrative problems and a central point of failure. People are using $30 Android tablets for their computing needs without that complexity.
Your question to you (Score:2)
Thoughts on Alpha? (Score:1)
I'm wondering what you think looking back at the whole Alpha scene.
-were there any major failings?
-what were the nicest features?
-while the hardware is now abandoned and slow, do you think it could have remained competetive?
-favorite stor(y|ies) related to Alpha or Linux/Alpha?
-are you still interested in Alpha, or have you moved on?
No UK VAT FOSS bookkeeping program (Score:1)
My question.
Part1 history.While developing many other facets of Gnu/Linux so that most small companies can use FOSS to totally run their business, the lack of a FOSS UK or EU VAT system of bookkeeping keeps small start ups 'locked' into Windows as there they have the relevant accounting/bookkeeping programs. (GnuCash is OK for personal accounts, useless for UK or EU VAT systems).
Part 2 Question: Is any effort being made to solve this as it would allow start ups to be independent of Windows.
There a