Professor Jon (Mad Dog) Hall

During his time with Digital Equipment Corporation 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. It was also in this general timeframe that Hall, who lives in New Hampshire, started the Greater New Hampshire Linux Users' Group. Hall serves on the boards of several companies, and several non-profit organizations, including the USENIX Association. At the UK Linux and Open Source Awards 2006, Hall was honoured with a Lifetime Recognition Award for his services to the open source community. Hall holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1977) and a Bachelor of Science in Commerce and Engineering from Drexel University (1973).