The participants of Latinoware could never be surprised by the presence of Jon "Maddog" Hall. Those attending the event could have never imagined the event without the presence of the "nice old man," always willing to carry on a conversation, hand out autographs, or have his picture taken.
   
"Maddog" was responsible for carrying Linux beyond the Intel 386 platform, when he made Digital send Linus Torvalds (in Finland) computers with Alpha 64 bit chips. The history of Linux is well-known from that point on. Linux is now, with its many hats, the engine of supercomputers, desktops, notebooks, tablets, cellphones and car, ship, plan, and spaceship computer systems.
   
But what piques the curiostiy of every Latinoware attendee each year is always: “What will "Maddog" talk about this year?" On the 20-year anniversary of Linux, he asked to speak two times at the event: On the first day, immediately before the official commencement, and on the last day, at the closing. "I would like to use Latinoware as an opportunity to make an arch linking what has happened in the last 20 years with what we can hope for in the next 20 years with Linux", he said. As requested by our godfather, we tend to carry out what he asks for, and that is what will be done!
    
"Maddog" opens Latinoware with the talk "Back to the future", where he will talk about the premise of computers making our lives and work easier. However, we have seen how Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have put a "mainframe" on all of our tables, and have shipped all technical support to India. According to him, "We have more than reached the tine for rethinking technology from our side, using computers as our real helpers in the conservation of natural resources, energy saving, and at the same time, facilitating access to good education and good jobs."
    
To close the event, "Maddog" cites Douglas Adams (the author of "The HItchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", which all nerds know well), calling his speech "Happy Birthday, Linux! Thanks for all the fish! But what´s next?". He himself concludes: "We should be happy to celebrate all the good things that Linux gave us, but what should we hope for in the future from our favorite operating system?"
    
Read the interview "Maddog" gave to our team at: http://www.latinoware.org/en/node/90