Remembering and thanking Steve Langasek

Below is a modified version of my reply to debian-private. It has been several days, yet somehow I get the feeling that it’s missing quite a bit. That being said, it is nearly impossible to describe and distill these feelings down to words. If you, like me, are struggling to find those words, do your best. You’re not alone, both in shock at the events and in not being able to fully summarize your experiences.


This is extremely unfortunate news. Thank you for letting us know.

I’m a fairly new member of the Debian project, relatively speaking. At 16 years old (in 2018), thanks to the support of a sponsor, I flew to Portland for a few days for some key signing. These were the final signatures I needed in order to become a Debian Developer.

That was my first time meeting Steve in person. I vividly remember him picking me up, the apologies about the muffler that he needed to get fixed in his car, and the drive to a spot in Portland where we dined on Ethiopian food [I have not dined on it since, but just might in honor] and chatted about Ubuntu, Debian, Portland, the midwest US, and more.

Prior to meeting in person, we had many online interactions. As one of many examples, I studied Spanish in high school, so there was a day where we had an entire technical conversation in #ubuntu-release in Spanish. (I never admitted to using a little bit of Google Translate there.)

Steve was someone I looked up to throughout my entire time in Debian and Ubuntu. His deep commitment to technical excellency helped me become the developer (and by extension, person) I am today.

“The world is a dumber place without him.”

With deep sadness,
Simon

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