Debian mourns the passing of Ian Murdock (founder of the Debian Project)


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Debian mourns the passing of Ian Murdock

 

With a heavy heart Debian mourns the passing of Ian Murdock, stalwart proponent of Free Open Source Software, Father, Son, and the 'ian' in Debian.

 

Ian started the Debian project in August of 1993, releasing the first versions of Debian later that same year. Debian would go on to become the world's Universal Operating System, running on everything from embedded devices to the space station.

 

Ian's sharp focus was on creating a Distribution and community culture that did the right thing, be it ethically, or technically. Releases went out when they were ready, and the project's staunch stance on Software Freedom are the gold standards in the Free and Open Source world.

 

Ian's devotion to the right thing guided his work, both in Debian and in the subsequent years, always working towards the best possible future.

 

Ian's dream has lived on, the Debian community remains incredibly active, with thousands of developers working untold hours to bring the world a reliable and secure operating system.

 

The thoughts of the Debian Community are with Ian's family in this hard time.

 

His family has asked for privacy during this difficult time and we very much wish to respect that. Within our Debian and the larger Linux community condolences may be sent to in-memoriam-ian@debian.org where they will be kept and archived.

 

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Source: bits.debian.org

 

Requiescat in pace.

The Linux community has lost one of its greats.  Debian has become the standard upon which many other successful projects have been built; Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Clonezilla, Raspbian, Knoppix, Mepis, Xandros, the list goes on and on.  I can't speak for Ian personally, but I can say that his work in creating the Debian project has yielded positive results that will be felt for years to come.

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I hope this doesn't detract from the sadness of his passing.

 

The Venture Beat article points to a PDF screenshot of some tweets from his account (the Twitter account has since been suspended/deleted) where he apparently had a bad run-in with the police immediately before his death.

 

Article: http://venturebeat.com/2015/12/30/debian-founder-and-docker-employee-ian-murdock-has-died-at-42/

 

PDF of Tweets (In case the original gets taken down I put it in my DropBox): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6017319/Ian%20Murdock%20Tweets.pdf

Very sad news indeed :( RIP.

 

Btw @Gerowen your sig image doesn't go anywhere, I'm going to assume it's a forum bug (and yes I did want to see your setup :p).

wow...

 

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5:27pm: Maybe my suicide at this, you now, a successful business man, not a NIG***, will finally bring some attention to this very serious issue.

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uh... I don't know what to say about that tweet...

 

I doubt the police just followed him home and beat him... there's a lot more to this story then we are hearing

Edited by neufuse
  On 30/12/2015 at 20:52, mpmc said:

Very sad news indeed :( RIP.

 

Btw @Gerowen your sig image doesn't go anywhere, I'm going to assume it's a forum bug (and yes I did want to see your setup :p).

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Fixed and PM sent.

  On 30/12/2015 at 19:48, Gerowen said:
  On 30/12/2015 at 19:48, Gerowen said:

The Linux community has lost one of its greats.  Debian has become the standard upon which many other successful projects have been built; Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Clonezilla, Raspbian, Knoppix, Mepis, Xandros, the list goes on and on.  I can't speak for Ian personally, but I can say that his work in creating the Debian project has yielded positive results that will be felt for years to come.

Expand  

The Linux community has lost one of its greats.  Debian has become the standard upon which many other successful projects have been built; Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Clonezilla, Raspbian, Knoppix, Mepis, Xandros, the list goes on and on.  I can't speak for Ian personally, but I can say that his work in creating the Debian project has yielded positive results that will be felt for years to come.

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Agree totally! No matter the circumstances of his passing, Debian has been a rock solid and reliable distro for the whole Linux /GNU community. If bred Ubuntu as well as a number of other offshoots. Sad story!

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  On 30/12/2015 at 21:19, Unobscured Vision said:

Shocked and saddened by this news. First Lemmy of Motorhead, now Ian. Man ... :no: 

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Oh man, I cried when I heard about Lemmy. It's been a rough time. I didn't know much about Debian, I'm still getting into Linux. But may he Rest In Peace. I'll cry when Bjarne Stroutsap and Linus Torvald pass. Those two, among Einstein and Tesla are my heroes.

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Anyone who has ever used an Ubuntu-based or Debian-based Linux distribution, or more recently Solaris and Docker (I believe that's the most recent project he worked on) has either directly or indirectly benefited from Ian's work.

 

His passing affects a lot more people than just us "niche" users.

 

I need to gather some information to make sure I'm correct on what all he's been involved with over the years besides Debian.

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