Jon maddog Hall - The History of Free and Open Source Culture

Copyright Linux International 20171 of 29

The History of Free And Open

Source Culture: A Personal Story

by

Jon "maddog" Hall

Executive Director

Linux International

and

Board Chair, LPI

and

President, Project Cauã

and

Senior Advisor, Caninos Loucos


Warning:

Strong opinions in this talk....many are personal and

apply only to me...your opinions may vary....I

respect yours, please respect mine.


Who Am I?Half Electrical Engineer, Half Business, Half Computer Software

In the computer industry since 1969

Mainframes 5 years

Unix since 1980

Linux since 1994

Companies (mostly large): Aetna Life and Casualty, Bell Labs, Digital Equipment

Corporation, SGI, IBM, Linaro, LeMaker

Programmer, Systems Administrator, Systems Engineer, Product Manager, Technical

Marketing Manager, University Educator, Author, Businessperson, Consultant

Taught OS design and compiler design

Extremely large systems to extremely small ones

Vendor and a customer

Pragmatic


In 1830s.....

Age of steam and power

Charles BabbageTrained at Cambridge

Analytical Engine

Difference Engine


We Do Not Care About

Charles...Lady Lovelace:

Daughter of Lord Byron

Mathmatical Genious

Wrote first “programs”

for Analytical Engine

Considered “first

programmer”

“Ada” named for her


1935 - CambridgeBrilliant young mathematician

Interested in how humans think

Wrote book on artificial computing

“Turing Machine” and “AI”

1940 – Broke Enigma Code with BOMBASaved ~14,000,000 lives

1952 – Indicted for “homosexual acts”

1954 – Committed suicide


Harvard – Mark I

Commander Howard Aiken –

Project Leader

Built on Babbage's theories


We Do Not Care About

Howard...

Grace Murray Hopper:

Lt. who rose to Rear Admiral

First Modern Day Programmer

“Amazing Grace”

Programmed for ballistics

Project Leader for COBOL

“nano-seconds and more....”


1969

Unix was invented at Bell LaboratoriesKen Thompson and Dennis Ritchie

Arpanet was funded

Linus Torvalds was born in Helsinki

Finland

Stonewall riots in New York City

maddog attended Drexel UniversityThe last time maddog shaved....


The Last Time maddog Shaved


Computers in 1969

Physically large

Logically small

REALLY Expensive!

Slow by today's standardsOne program at a time

No Operating SystemLink device drivers into program

Boot program


….But Also Mini-Computers!

DEC PDP-84 Kilobytes RAM

One General Purpose

Register

Lights and Buttons!

DECUSLibraries of Code!

(Almost) Free!


DECUS

Few “Professional Programmers”Too few computers of one type or one OS

People wrote programs to solve own problemsPeople gave away their programs to DECUS

Others cooperated in making programs better

“Let me buy you a beer...let me give you a job.”

Communities of people making their own (and

other's) lives better


University of California:

Berkeley

Ken Thompson (co-inventor of Unix OS) went on

sabbaticalUsed Unix to teach Operating System Courses

BSD Unix derived from AT&T (Bell Laboratories)

Unix

Unix “flavored” by Berkeley environmentspell(1) - “dyke” vs “dike”, “fag”

fortune(1)

Eventually BSD Unix became “Open Source”


USENIX:

Software Tools

Organization for design of modern operating

systemsMany based on Unix

Shared programs and data openly

Special Interest Groups included “Birds of Feather”

sessions on LGBT participantsMany leaders of DECUS were LGBT

Copyright, Patents and Proprietary versions

eliminated open sharing


GNU Is Not UNIX:

The Beginning of the FSF

Richard M. Stallman (rms) loved looking at source

code in 1984Distressed because he could no longer solve his own

problems

Decided to write his own “Unix-like” operating

system called “GNU” (for GNU is Not UNIX)

In 1995 formed the Free Software Foundation

(FSF)


DECUS – May 1994

The Adult DisneylandHeld in New Orleans

Linus Torvalds (creator of Linux

kernel) invited to speak

Demonstration of (GNU) LinuxGNU “OS, Linux kernel, and many

more pieces of code

Arranged to donate Alpha processor

to Linux port

Enjoyed the rest of New Orleans


Became (more) Involved With

Free and Open Source

Community“meritocracy”

“show me the code”

“On the Internet, no one

knows you are a dog”

“diversity is good”


The Computer Industry

Tended to be “tolerant”

They cared more about results than sexualityIBM

Digital Equipment Corporation

Sun Microsystems

Microsoft

Google

Hewlett Packard

Apple

Others....


Started To Travel Internationally

International travel more than 50% of my time

Over 100 countries, most more than one time

For the people on the street, mostly the same:A good life for themselves

A better life for their children

To be left alone by the government


At The Age of 60, Still In Closet

Sex is a continuum:Very homosexual

Bi-sexual

Very heterosexual

Sex drive is a continuumVery high sex drive

“Normal” sex drive

Low sex drive

I am very homosexual, low sex drive


Marriage Equality Struggle

Erupted in USAFriends of mine, living together for forty or fifty

years, were dying protection and recognition of

marriage

Exposed strong bigots

Joined Marriage Equality fightDonated money

Manned phone banks

Protested for Marriage Equality

Attended Legislature Meetings

New Hampshire Legislature voted for Marriage

Equality


“I Do Not Understand”

My Catholic friend of many years did not

understand why “Civil Unions” were not enough.

Twenty minutes of quiet conversation convinced

him.


Quiet One on One Talk Was Not

Enough

“Gay Geeks” had double whammy:Being Geeks

Being Homosexual

Young LGBTQ people were committing suicide at

heavy rate

State controls on marriage equality needed to

become nation-wide


I Came Out:

June 12th

, 2012

Wrote long blog articleOn July 4

th

, 2012 I answered commenters

http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/Online/Blogs/Pa

w-Prints-Writings-of-the-maddog/In-Honor-of-

Alan-Turing-A-message-from-the-sponsor-

UPDATED-for-Independence-Day

Over 100,000 readers in 100 countries, five

languages

It remains the “most read blog” of any article or

blog written for Linux Magazine


Fall Out

Overwhelming support from readers

Many people have come up and thanked me

Many others have made the decision to “come out”

Freedom of “no more secrets”

I found a boyfriend in 2014On February 28

th

, 2017 we were married


In Summary

I am still a GeekThat is a choice

I still believe in Free and Open Source SoftwareThat is a given

My sexuality is a small, but important part of my

lifeThat is not a choice

I love my husbandThat is also a given


Recommendations

Be yourself

Be true to yourself

Live by example

Learn the arguments, learn the answers

Speak quietly and clearly

Find your love before you are sixty-one


Questions or Comments?

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