Ian Murdock, respected figure in the free software community, died Monday in San Francisco (California), announced the site Docker, the start-up working where this native of Constance, Germany. Murdock, 42, was known for creating in 1993 the free operating system Debian, one of the earliest and best-known Linux distributions. “Ian Murdock was a friend. I am shocked and saddened “, wrote on Twitter Jim Zemlin, director of the Linux Foundation, which Murdock was chief technology officer (CTO) between 2005 and 2007.
” Debian would become the universal operating system around the world, running on all machines, from embedded systems to the space station, “, says a tribute post published on the official website of Debian. “Ian had focused on creating a distribution and a community culture that would take the right decisions both from the ethical point of view and from a technical perspective. Post only when it’s ready and firm position of the project on software freedom are the golden rules in the world of free software and open source. “
The text mentions “the utmost discretion during these difficult times” desired by the family of Ian Murdock. Beyond the pain of the relatives, that discretion can be explained by the particular circumstances surrounding the death of Murdock: shortly before his death, he announced on Twitter his intention to end his life, explaining his decision a series of altercations with police in San Francisco – his Twitter account has since been deleted, but an archive of his last tweets is available here (pdf). Among his few 4400 subscribers, many thought, moreover, that his account had been hacked in the hours before his death.
Declaring he was beaten by security forces at the point of having to have stitches, Murdock stated in his tweets have been indicted for violence on a police officer, to the point of bail of 25,000 dollars to be paid to avoid jail space. Police violence in the United States are the subject of several other messages. “Maybe my suicide, that of a recognized businessman, not a NEGRO, draw a little attention to this very serious problem” , it said in a tweet.
“The police have no education, are malicious and sadistic. Do not trust them doing “. Asked yesterday by the site Venturebeat, San Francisco police had no information as to the cause of death of Ian Murdock.
No comments:
Post a Comment