The Age Interviews Linux Advocate Rick Moen
Source: The Age
If one were to tell anyone acquainted with Rick Moen that the word self-effacing can actually be used in conjunction with him, it is very likely that one would be met with a disbelieving stare.
However, that's a fact: Rick was initially hesitant to admit that he would qualify as a subject for an interview, as (in his own words), he was "just an unemployed sysadmin in the Silicon Valley area" wondering from where his next job would come. He hemmed and hawed a bit before being convinced that the exposure could be justified.
Rick calls himself "a software generalist" in the Linux community, who answers technical questions on-line, concerning all aspects of Linux. He does this on the mailing lists of various Linux user groups (without respect to geographical boundaries - he is very active on the Linux Users of Victoria list), on Usenet newsgroups, and as a member of the answer gang of the monthly e-magazine Linux Gazette.
But these apart, he has been a moving force behind many events that have propelled Linux into the limelight - he helped plan the LINC Expo (which evolved into the first LinuxWorld Conference and Expo, in San Jose), the first Windows Refund Day, and many other Linux community events in the San Francisco Bay Area. All of which have earned him the reputation of being something of a rabble-rouser.
A native of California who spent a considerable part of his formative years in Hong Kong, he completed a bachelor's degree in mathematics after first registering for a computer science programme at Princeton University and finding that he disliked it.
