During the Christmas break, I reed the sad news of Ian Murdock's death. Ian Murdock was an important and influential figure within the open source world.
Ian began Debian in 1993 with the intention of creating a Linux distribution which would be well maintained and with fewer bugs than the Linux distros of the time. To achieve this Ian included with the initial release of Debian a manifesto. "In it he called for the creation of a distribution to be maintained openly, in the spirit of Linux and GNU." In so doing he laid down much of the foundations for the practical issues of creating open source projects. The guide lines have created a frame work for many organizations and volunteers to cooperate together.
The circumstances of Ian's death have yet to be resolved, but what does seem clear is that a bright, intelligent man became confused, frighted and no one was able to persuade him that there was any other option. In a wealthy, sophisticated society it seems tragic that we are unable to notice and care for those most at risk.
Mental illness needs to be cared for, not ignored or we will lose more of those that try to make the world more open.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please feel free to give me your opion