The founder of the Debian operating system (Ian Murdock) has sadly passed away. 
Thank you Ian for all your great work, you will be sorely missed!.
Indeed, a great loss to the Open Source community.
How very sad. It would appear this poor man was not at peace with himself. May he rest in peace now.
Yes, what a great person with such a legacy. Thank you for apt-get install and everything else.
It was a bad day for Linux in general. He did so much in the early years.
Ian Murdock: a tribute to the man and his work on Linux
Hallo
More information has become available [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/07/ian_murdock_autopsy/].
1 Like
It tells us what we already knew but not what drove him really to commit suicide?. 
Maybe there is/was something in the police harrassment reports?. 
From what I have read about him, the underlying âcauseâ was Asperger syndrome.
Asperger syndrome, is a developmental âdisorderâ that lies on the autistic spectrum and is characterised by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour and interests. It is more common in certain professions such as engineering and coding. Presumably, because such professions do not hinder professional progress in people with such conditions. Indeed, it might even be argued that having such a condition may actually be advantageous in some engineering or coding contexts.
However, I need to clarify here that since Asperger syndrome has a relatively stable position in the population distribution (autism, including Asberger syndrome, is about 1% of the population), then we might presume that it has some evolutionary advantage in certain environmental contexts. Or, at least, that in most environmental contexts over the course of our evolutionary history it has not impinged on survival sufficient to have wiped it out of the human genome. That being the case, one has to wonder what it is about the specific demands of the modern world that makes living with such a condition so difficult for so many of the people who have it.
all in all very sad.
1 Like
Hallo
Asperger Syndrome.
I live with two people who have Asperger Syndrome. Briefly put, people are the problem - you and I and all the other âneuro-typicalsâ. Aspis donât come equipped with the ability to decode all our unspoken âinteractionsâ with each other, primarily âbody-languageâ. Having to interact with other people means a huge exercise in âde-codingâ for them - total stress, they find things such as work-place meetings very tiring because of this (the greater the number of people involved, the greater the burden). They need regular solitude the same way neuro-typicals need interaction - if they donât get at least the minimum amount they require their mental state suffers. If you know an aspi, or you think you know an aspi, just give them the seclusion/privacy that they need - youâll see a clear improvement in their state of relaxation - because theâre not being too overloaded by neuro-typicals âneeds/demandsâ for more or less constant interaction.
These people are not ill, and therefore cannot be âcuredâ. A person who is colour-blind is not ill, itâs just the way their eyes and brain work, in THEIR ânaturalâ condition. Aspis often perceive the world differently than neuro-typicals do; this allows them to make âbreak-throughsâ that neuro-typicals just canât âseeâ. Perhaps more commonly they have an incredible ability to focus on one thing at a time, excluding everything else. The way an âAspiâsâ brain is wired is different (not wrong). Without the contribution made by âaspisâ throughout human history we would undoubtedly be in a very different place than we are now.
There is apparently some evidence that amongst those aspis who have helped to bring humanity to the place it stands today are: Newton, Mozart, Einstein, Turing, Stallman, Murdock. There are companies today who almost exclusively hire aspis. They then put them to work in aspi-friendly working-environments e.g. no telephones, communication via email, very few group meetings, no direct contact with clients etc⌠Given such correctly adapted working conditions aspis can thrive. Want a bad idea - put an aspi in a modern âopen-planâ office (20+ co-workers). Actually itâs not a bad idea - itâs an ill informed decision, one that no neuro-typical manager should ever make; because if he/she makes that wrong decision they are simply showing that they are a bad manager.
Anyone who wants to find out more, including the many adult aspis who have never been diagnosed and know they are somehow different - but they just donât understand what the difference is, could try the publisher âJessica Kingsley Publishersâ, where there are many good books on the subject. The first one to consider might be âThe Complete Guide to Aspergerâs Syndromeâ by Dr. Tony Attwood. I can recommend it.
All the aspis and all the neuo-typicals who have read this - I wish us all a wonderful, enriching, informed co-existance. Vivre la diffĂŠrence! 
By the way, the ârâ in vivre is intentional.
2 Likes
WOW this is surprising to hear how he died, what a shame such talent. may he rest in peace
1 Like