Founder of Debian dead under suspicious circumstances

Wompa1

The founder of Debian, Ian Murdock has died. It was announced in a statement by his current employers, Docker. Which can be found here: http://blog.docker.com/2015/12/ian-murdock/

It was thought that his Twitter account had been hacked as he started tweeting cryptically and out of character about a situation with the police. His account was then suddenly closed.

Archive of the tweets are here: http://pastebin.com/yk8bgru5

In the tweets he claimed he got arrested for knocking on his neighbors door. The police arrived and beat him up. They then charged him for battery against one of them. In the tweets, which may or may not have been from him, he also claimed after he returned to his home that the police showed up again, dragged him out and beat him up a second time.

He claimed he was going to kill himself but before he did, he would tell his story to try to prevent this from happening to others. Docker today announced that he died on Monday. He did not post anything on his blog about the experience.

Very creepy. He also used a random hashtag on twitter, which some in the Linux community are speculating that it's a password to something.

me_irl

Reminds me of "The Internets Own Boy", documentary about the life and death of Aaron Schwartz. Very strange.

Specialun

He only made 1.4 million?

Azalea

Poor poor guy - what a waste of a young, supremely talented life. I think, as has been speculated on Reddit, that it seems like he had a breakdown/episode of psychosis. Is there anywhere where he said what the police brutality was for?

Wompa1

Specialun wrote: »

He only made 1.4 million?

Last year, I believe.

fleet_admiral

RIP Dirk Diggler

Wompa1

Azalea wrote: »

Poor poor guy - what a waste of a young, supremely talented life. I think, as has been speculated on Reddit, that it seems like he had a breakdown/episode of psychosis. Is there anywhere where he said what the police brutality was for?

Just that he knocked on his neighbors door and they showed up. It's also possible that the police did he beat him up, he got a head injury and then went on the rant and killed himself.

HamsterFace

Not being smart but what's the significance of this guy and what would be a motive for a suspicious death?

Sh1tbag OToole

Always seemed to be a decent lad. RIP

Azalea

Wompa1 wrote: »

Just that he knocked on his neighbors door and they showed up. It's also possible that the police did he beat him up, he got a head injury and then went on the rant and killed himself.

I wonder why the police would have done so though. I don't know that they didn't, of course, but supposing it was an episode of psychosis: it's incredible what a psychotic breakdown can cause to be the "reality" for patients. Stuff that is as real to them as this thread is to us now. The guy said he was suicidal, so perhaps he was unwell. Perhaps the experience which felt so real to him was informed by so many reports of excessive police force this year, and maybe he was being taken to hospital, hence feeling like he was being dragged against his will.

Of course this is entirely speculation but it is what I strongly suspect could be the case.

Azalea

HamsterFace wrote: »

Not being smart but what's the significance of this guy and what would be a motive for a suspicious death?

Very significant in the technology world - bit of a child prodigy (well, if 20 is child ) but I know what you mean in relation to the motive aspect, it doesn't seem like he was an Assange type or a hacktivist. Maybe there is more to come out, though.

gctest50

HamsterFace wrote: »

Not being smart but what's the significance of this guy and what would be a motive for a suspicious death?

one of many of things :

https://www.debian.org

named after his missus and himself - debbie , ian

.

HamsterFace

HamsterFace wrote: »

Not being smart but what's the significance of this guy and what would be a motive for a suspicious death?

I think the biggest shock is that it came out of the blue, he had a very successful career and seemed very level headed then out of nowhere he makes claims about police brutality, uses a racial slur and threatens to commit suicide. Unfortunately it looks like he followed through with it. Very sad indeed

Wompa1

Azalea wrote: »

I wonder why the police would have done so though. I don't know that they didn't, of course, but supposing it was an episode of psychosis: it's incredible what a psychotic breakdown can cause to be the "reality" for patients. Stuff that is as real to them as this thread is to us now. The guy said he was suicidal, so perhaps he was unwell. Perhaps the experience which felt so real to him was informed by so many reports of excessive police force this year, and maybe he was being taken to hospital, hence feeling like he was being dragged against his will.

Of course this is entirely speculation but it is what I strongly suspect could be the case.

Fair point. It will be interesting to see what happened, if it ever comes out. He had a wife and kids too. It's very sad.

An extra piece of speculation or rather kindling for that fire.

Last year a Tech worker got some attention for claiming discrimination from the San Francisco police department. It lead to a lot of Techies in the city to come forward with stories of what they also believed was discrimination against them by the police which gave birth to this conspiracy that those running the city are not happy with the influx of Tech workers. That they have drastically driven up the cost of homes and rent there, making it unaffordable for the bohemian, artsy types that are typically associated with the city. The feeling was that the Techie influx is hurting the image of the city.

Wompa1

HamsterFace wrote: »

Not being smart but what's the significance of this guy and what would be a motive for a suspicious death?

No known motive. Just speculation at this time. It's only suspicious because he was always very above board and calculated with his tweets. Always inoffensive. Then came the tweets I had linked and a few days later, he's dead.

Some extra details coming through from the theregister.co.uk

"According to the San Francisco police, officers were called to Steiner and Union St in the city at 11.30pm on Saturday, December 26, following reports of a man trying to break into a home – that man was identified as Ian Murdock. He reportedly fought with the cops, and was given a ticket for two counts of assault and one for obstruction of an officer. The techie had been drinking, according to the police logs. A medic arrived to treat an abrasion to Murdock's forehead, and he was released so he could be taken to hospital.

A few hours later, on Sunday, December 27 at 2.40am, police were called again to reports of Murdock banging on the door of a neighbor at the very same block. A medic arrived to treat him for any injuries at the scene. Next, the cops took Murdock to the county jail where he was held in a cell.
Murdock was bailed later that day, on Sunday, after a bond, said to be $25,000, was paid. He died the next day."

The Sun King

"Docker today announced that he died on Monday. He did not post anything on his blog about the experience."

Posting on his blog about his death would have been quite the trick.

Azalea

cisk wrote: »

Some extra details coming through from the theregister.co.uk

"According to the San Francisco police, officers were called to Steiner and Union St in the city at 11.30pm on Saturday, December 26, following reports of a man trying to break into a home – that man was identified as Ian Murdock. He reportedly fought with the cops, and was given a ticket for two counts of assault and one for obstruction of an officer. The techie had been drinking, according to the police logs. A medic arrived to treat an abrasion to Murdock's forehead, and he was released so he could be taken to hospital.

A few hours later, on Sunday, December 27 at 2.40am, police were called again to reports of Murdock banging on the door of a neighbor at the very same block. A medic arrived to treat him for any injuries at the scene. Next, the cops took Murdock to the county jail where he was held in a cell.
Murdock was bailed later that day, on Sunday, after a bond, said to be $25,000, was paid. He died the next day."

Wow. Maybe the police did get rough with him too (if in self defence) and said the alleged stuff.

Wompa1

Azalea wrote: »

Wow. Maybe the police did get rough with him too (if in self defence) and said the alleged stuff.

Yeah, possibly. Interesting to hear that the police were involved. I guess that's close to confirmation that he did put out the tweets. Being drunk makes sense to explain all of the typos in his tweets. Though, was he drunk on the Sunday too? Or just the Saturday. I think the tweets were from the Sunday.

Wompa1

The Sun King wrote: »

"Docker today announced that he died on Monday. He did not post anything on his blog about the experience."

Posting on his blog about his death would have been quite the trick.

Actually, in his tweets he said he was going to post a blog before killing himself. Who knows, maybe he still will. It looks like it's Wordpress. Which I believe you can set a timer for a post to become public.

Docker is his current employers :pac: