In Memoriam: Ian Murdock • Hacker News Board

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#61

Post by SwellJoe » Wed, Dec 30, 2015, 7:44 PM UTC

Nrsolis wrote: post #39

mixmastamyk wrote: post #30

Hmm, I don't understand this story and links here. Why would a very successful person with family commit suicide over police-brutality? No comprendo. The appropriate response would be to get even through a court of law, or even paying to have some legs broken if it were justified. Perhaps he was depressed or mentally ill?

There has to be something else going on when a person is confronted by the police and they decide to arrest you. I can only imagine that he was agitated somehow and may have been either mentally unstable or intoxicated. Suicide is not a normal response to being locked up by the police for a few hours.

Bullshit. Police beat the shit out of people, unprovoked, every day. They murder 12 year old boys without hesitation (Tamir Rice). They'll kill a woman in her jail cell because she knew her rights and tried to exercise them (Sandra Bland). They'll chase down (stealing a car to make the chase more exciting) and execute an innocent man because he happens to be black and trying to go into the bank where he has an account (Larry Jackson, Jr.). I could type all day and not finish the list of unarmed people who did nothing wrong who are dead by the hands of cops. The number who've been beaten by police is astronomically higher.

Ian is a well-known quantity, and what we know is that he was extraordinarily kind and generous. I don't believe for a second that he did anything to deserve to have a police officer beat him up. Not all police are vicious bullies, but I'm more willing to believe Ian had the misfortune to cross paths with a vicious bully than I am to believe he deserved being beaten up.

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#62

Post by shmerl » Wed, Dec 30, 2015, 7:44 PM UTC

I'm Debian user and very grateful for all the wonderful things that Debian enabled, thanks Ian for creating it.

It's very sad when people pass away like that. Aaron Swartz and Ilya Zhitomirskiy also come to mind.

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#63

Post by agumonkey » Wed, Dec 30, 2015, 7:45 PM UTC

vezzy-fnord wrote: post #31

raverbashing wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the Linux distro he created which is the basis for Ubuntu I'm sure this sounds as vinyl scratching to a lot of ears Debian stands on its own, though that statement is correct

It's probably the single most ported distribution, from a variety of remixes for desktop, netbook and recovery uses alike to usually being the first target for every microcontroller and single-board.

And Ubuntu's "trunk" too, unless you counted it as a remix already.

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#64

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Dec 30, 2015, 7:46 PM UTC

spb wrote: post #3

Also, for those who weren't previously acquainted: Ian was the "ian" in Debian, the Linux distro he created which is the basis for Ubuntu. He started work at Docker in November, which is why they are publishing this.

[deleted]

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#65

Post by dguaraglia » Wed, Dec 30, 2015, 7:47 PM UTC

samstave wrote: post #55

gist wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to hear that would you be willing to describe the abuse in more detail?

Without giving too much detail in public, police were called to my house and I had just finished putting my children to bed. The officer was talking to me and then asked me to step on the porch, after doing so they had asked if I had been drinking - I said yes I had wine with my dinner, why. They then arrested me and refused to tell me why - their exact words were "you know why" and took me to jail. I then had to bai…

Ugh. Assholes. The tactics you describe remind me of Matt Taibbi's book "The Divide", where he recounts the experience of people in NYC being asked to empty their pockets (which the police shouldn't do unless they had probable cause) only to be charged with "possessing narcotics in public" when they found they had a joint.

The existence of such a loophole, and the fact that the police knowingly uses it with impunity, is evidence of how fucked up the system is. They are supposed to be there to protect us, not to entrap you for whatever power game they are playing.

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#66

Post by coldtea » Wed, Dec 30, 2015, 7:48 PM UTC

His other motivations for his act aside, the deeper societal (as opposed to personal) issue here is police abuse.

This incident shows nicely how this kind of thing can happen to anyone -- even a nice person (as say all who worked with/knew him), with no violent past, having built a huge community project, a family, working in a prominent startup, etc. White, too.

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#67

Post by coldtea » Wed, Dec 30, 2015, 7:48 PM UTC

rdtsc wrote: post #19

Please let's not dig up links or make speculations about what happened. He was the founder of the Debian project, let's remember him for that or other contributions he's made to the tech community. Debian has grown to be one of the most well known and popular Linux distribution, used in production, in the cloud, as the base for SteamOS, Ubuntu and other projects. It is and was a major part of what made Linux popular.

>Please let's not dig up links or make speculations about what happened.

Why? Seriously asking (I sometimes sneer, but I never troll).

Perhaps the exact things that went through his mind to make this do this are not productive to speculate upon, but the overall incident with the police etc, is a public issue.

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#68

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Dec 30, 2015, 7:50 PM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #64

spb wrote: post #3

Also, for those who weren't previously acquainted: Ian was the "ian" in Debian, the Linux distro he created which is the basis for Ubuntu. He started work at Docker in November, which is why they are publishing this.

[deleted]

[deleted]

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#69

Post by skylan_q » Wed, Dec 30, 2015, 7:50 PM UTC

rdtsc wrote: post #19

Please let's not dig up links or make speculations about what happened. He was the founder of the Debian project, let's remember him for that or other contributions he's made to the tech community. Debian has grown to be one of the most well known and popular Linux distribution, used in production, in the cloud, as the base for SteamOS, Ubuntu and other projects. It is and was a major part of what made Linux popular.

Please let's not dig up links or make speculations about what happened.

Is there something you want to hide?

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#70

Post by specialp » Wed, Dec 30, 2015, 7:52 PM UTC

samstave wrote: post #55

gist wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to hear that would you be willing to describe the abuse in more detail?

Without giving too much detail in public, police were called to my house and I had just finished putting my children to bed. The officer was talking to me and then asked me to step on the porch, after doing so they had asked if I had been drinking - I said yes I had wine with my dinner, why. They then arrested me and refused to tell me why - their exact words were "you know why" and took me to jail. I then had to bai…

Perhaps I could be wrong, but isn't bail returned when one successfully shows up in court until the matter is adjudicated regardless of the outcome? The only way bail is forfeited is when the defendant skips out on returning to court.