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Debian Founder Ian Murdock Has Died (docker.com)

Unknown Lamer writes: It has been confirmed that Debian founder Ian Murdock has died. From the Docker blog: "It is with great sadness that we inform you that Ian Murdock passed away on Monday night. This is a tragic loss for his family, for the Docker community, and the broader open source world; we all mourn his passing. ... Ian helped pioneer the notion of a truly open project and community, embracing open design and open contribution; in fact the formative document of the open source movement itself (the Open Source Definition) was originally a Debian position statement. It is a testament to Ian's commitment to openness and community that there are now more than 1,000 people currently involved in Debian development."

7 of 464 comments (clear)

  1. Re:42 year old dies and nobody asks why? by bluegutang · · Score: 4, Informative
  2. Circumstances surrounding his death disturbing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    I know it's considered inappropriate to speculate on the death of Mr. Murdock but the circumstances surrounding his sad demise was extremely disturbing.

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10803924
    https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/3yktcg/ian_murdock_debian_founder_is_threatening_suicide/

    If there's anything we could reconstruct out of the fragments, he probably suffered torture at the hand of police.

    It's inappropriate to speculate at this moment of sadness, but it's only fair to ask why. If that's what happened, it could happen to all of us.

  3. Re:42 year old dies and nobody asks why? by rubycodez · · Score: 3, Informative

    what? biggest demographic for suicide is white males 35-64, and since 1999 up 30+ percent

    over police brutality he says, hmmm maybe some other things and this plus some substance abuse was trigger

  4. Re:Dat's racist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's quite obvious when you read the rest of his feed from that night that he is claiming the police and the apathetic public are the racists. Even in that quote alone, addressed to a reader who presumably doesn't care about brutality when it happens to black people, as most middle-class whites feel. You idiots seem to think any use of the word 'nigger' is an ultimate condemnation, as if the meaning of words is innate to their very letters, instead of being determined in relation to the rest of their contacts. Your motivation for doing so is highly questionable considering that Murdock was beaten by police, twice, and then fucking killed himself in protest against them. If you can only conclude 'racism' from this tragedy, then bad news for you: you're the racist.

  5. Re:Something is very fishy by Drakster · · Score: 3, Informative
  6. A Requiem for Ian Murdock by bkuhn · · Score: 4, Informative
  7. Horrible by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is horrible.

    Having gone through the data I could find this evening, it appears that Ian was a victim of mental illness and perhaps substance abuse which initiated two interactions with police. I do not have sufficient information to say if police conduct was at fault.

    He was a very bright and creative guy who, unfortunately went through lots of ups and downs. He didn't deserve to end this way. Nobody does.