Jon ‘Maddog’ Hall is a long time hero of the free software movement and its rare to see his preso’s on video, and I’m glad to see one up: Jon ‘Maddog’ Hall interview and speech at Linux.com.

There is something very important in the beginning of the second video that I want to point out to all our branding and trademark friends at Sun…

“My lawyers tell me that I have to keep reminding people that Linux is a trademark of Linux Torvalds in several countries around the world but unlike a lot of other trademarks, Linus would like everybody to use the word Linux for any conceivable purpose. So if you’d like to name your product after Linux, or you know Linux something or other or something or other for Linux, all we ask is that you register it with the Linux Mark Institution so that we can defend the trademark.”

Visit the Linux Mark Institute for more information. It is possible to be fair and open with a trademark without strong arming use.

Maddog is awesome, I highly everyone to sit down and take an hour to watch the video in its entirety, you’ll learn something or have a good time, and hopefully both. I’ll also point out that Raster is at OpenMoko so keep a close eye on the phone he’s waving around. Oh if only I could spend my time playing with EFL again… that was so much fun.