In Memoriam: Ian Murdock • Hacker News Board

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#321

Post by dorfsmay » Thu, Dec 31, 2015, 3:30 AM UTC

cbd1984 wrote: post #317

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.

Debian and Slackware are the two oldest distros still around, beating out Red Hat by roughly a year. They form the inspiration and, in some key ways, the basis of many modern distros, and Debian especially created apt-get and greatly increased the number of people familiar with dependency-tracking package management. (I honestly can't find anything saying the Debian people invented dependency-tracking package managem…

Other OSes had package managers with dependency resolution before Linux even existed, eg: AIX.

Debian packaging was an amazing step forward in the Linux world when it appeared.

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#322

Post by jodrellblank » Thu, Dec 31, 2015, 3:38 AM UTC

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #171

vezzy-fnord wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"of course it runs debian" :-D

OS rivalry with https://www.netbsd.org/ ?

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#323

Post by Grishnakh » Thu, Dec 31, 2015, 3:46 AM UTC

orionblastar wrote: post #228

ultramancool wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got an idea if someone really wants to go on a hunt... This might seem incredibly nosy, but I don't think it would be too personal - check RadioReference for his city, they archive police scanner feeds, if you pay them a little, you can access the archives. If something happened and he was having some sort of mental health or drug problem, hopefully that would be mentioned, if something really did go down with t…

I can tell you that the police don't treat the mentally ill very well. They are not trained in helping out the mentally ill. I got a friend who is mentally ill and is homeless sometimes, police beat him up and arrested him for being at a McDonald's on his Macbook. He was in jail for a year, gave him the wrong psyche meds, kept delaying his preliminary hearing until he had to plead guilty to get out of jail. Charged w…

>I can tell you that the police don't treat the mentally ill very well. They are not trained in helping out the mentally ill.

The problem isn't training. You don't need training to be nice to people and not beat them senseless, nor do you need to be a genius to see when someone is having mental problems, or to know that being an asshole to someone who's clearly suicidal isn't helpful.

The problem is that the police in the USA are largely evil. There's no other explanation for it. You have to be an evil person to enjoy beating other people, not to mention shooting them in the back and other violent things that our police do to people on a daily basis.

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#324

Post by ianamartin » Thu, Dec 31, 2015, 3:48 AM UTC

I have little to say about this.

It's incredibly sad, whatever happened. I've felt the loss from many people in my life leaving too soon. We all have. Sometimes it's suicide, sometimes it's a car accident. Sometimes it's cancer. Sometimes people just get old and die. Sometimes people get mugged by thugs. Or Police. Maybe there isn't a difference between the last two.

But it doesn't matter right now. The process of justice is a slow-moving wheel. Sometimes it doesn't move at all. Sometimes it moves the wrong way.

For better or worse, that wheel is not in the hacker community's hands. Keep records, remember what you saw happening. But it's far too soon to expect anything concrete.

Instead, I think it's reasonable to think of what the family has to say. At least for right now.

So I offer this:

I use Ian Murdock's work every day at my job and every evening when I'm just playing around with stuff.

Debian has been the single most important technology that propelled and directed my career and my creative life since I started creating things with technology.

This person, who I never had the opportunity to meet, affected my life in amazing ways by giving me tools I never had and didn't have the ability to imagine.

Thank you, Ian Murdock.

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#325

Post by Grishnakh » Thu, Dec 31, 2015, 3:50 AM UTC

Tenhundfeld wrote: post #315

brogrammer90 wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Red states are wrong about many issues but gun control isn't one of them. Cops think twice when they know there's an equalizer in the equation. If you live in a part of the country where the populace is disarmed, don't be surprised that police are beating the shit of you, or terrorists are targeting your gun-free zones. Exercise your 2nd amendment rights, and open carry that AR15 with 30 round magazines proudly.

> Cops think twice when they know there's an equalizer in the equation. What exactly do you mean by that? The reason I'm asking is that everything I've read or heard from law enforcement acquaintances is that cops are much more likely to draw their weapon in situations where they think guns are present. That is, they might be less likely to "beat the shit [out] of you", but they are much more likely to shoot you. If…

Crime is at an all-time low these days, and very few people hunt for food. You're probably much more likely to be killed or assaulted by a cop than anyone else, so it seems to make perfect sense that someone would want a gun to protect them from the cops.

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#326

Post by dan077 » Thu, Dec 31, 2015, 3:54 AM UTC

Guys sadly he was murdered by the CIA...

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#327

Post by brogrammer90 » Thu, Dec 31, 2015, 4:00 AM UTC

Tenhundfeld wrote: post #315

brogrammer90 wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Red states are wrong about many issues but gun control isn't one of them. Cops think twice when they know there's an equalizer in the equation. If you live in a part of the country where the populace is disarmed, don't be surprised that police are beating the shit of you, or terrorists are targeting your gun-free zones. Exercise your 2nd amendment rights, and open carry that AR15 with 30 round magazines proudly.

> Cops think twice when they know there's an equalizer in the equation. What exactly do you mean by that? The reason I'm asking is that everything I've read or heard from law enforcement acquaintances is that cops are much more likely to draw their weapon in situations where they think guns are present. That is, they might be less likely to "beat the shit [out] of you", but they are much more likely to shoot you. If…

How do you know if he will just "rough" you up? Maybe Ian thought the same too. Expecting mercy from a criminal is like hiring a pedo to babysit your kids.

I was pulled over once while carrying and the cop went from asshole to polite in a millisecond once I informed him I was legally carrying at 4 o'clock. Ultimately if a cop is going to draw on me with criminal intentions, then I will defend myself as if he were a criminal.

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#328

Post by JILandJAC16 » Thu, Dec 31, 2015, 4:06 AM UTC

No way; not another creative suicide. It's like Quaid is saying; and maybe Gates and Buffet dumped half their stuff while they could because the ones after all-power are ramping up their coming for the big fish to get them out of the way before they try their take-over. Sounds nuts, but Robin Williams? Seriously? Ian? Seriously? I don't think so. I just don't believe it. Bless those of you who lost a personal connection to a wonderful time and friend of your life.

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#329

Post by sheensleeves » Thu, Dec 31, 2015, 4:14 AM UTC

ricardobeat wrote: post #121

segmondy wrote: post #45

It really bothers me that traces of someone's existence can be wiped out with a mouse click, be it on twitter, google, facebook, or other sites. I read the tweets while this was going on, I was hoping he would find some other means to cope and raise awareness, and to hear that he actually went through with it. :-( I go to reread and see if there's anything I might have missed and his twitter page is gone as if he nev…

That is mostly a property of Twitter. It disallows crawling by archive.org, and very few others have the capacity to keep up with the massive amounts of data it generates.

The Library of Congress archives tweets.

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#330

Post by verylongname » Thu, Dec 31, 2015, 4:21 AM UTC

Grishnakh wrote: post #323

orionblastar wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can tell you that the police don't treat the mentally ill very well. They are not trained in helping out the mentally ill. I got a friend who is mentally ill and is homeless sometimes, police beat him up and arrested him for being at a McDonald's on his Macbook. He was in jail for a year, gave him the wrong psyche meds, kept delaying his preliminary hearing until he had to plead guilty to get out of jail. Charged w…

>I can tell you that the police don't treat the mentally ill very well. They are not trained in helping out the mentally ill. The problem isn't training. You don't need training to be nice to people and not beat them senseless, nor do you need to be a genius to see when someone is having mental problems, or to know that being an asshole to someone who's clearly suicidal isn't helpful. The problem is that the police i…

This. I'm sorry to say that I agree. What is really astonishing is the low quality of the police forces in cities in the United States which pay police very very well (when all of their benefits are taken into account).