Alan Eldridge 1961-2003
Jordan K Hubbard
jkh at queasyweasel.com
Sun Jun 8 15:50:03 PDT 2003
My sincere condolences.. I did not know Alan, but I know how
tight-knit the FreeBSD community is and how much this affects everyone,
whether they were friends with him or not.
I hope this sad event is also a strong reminder to people that
"FreeBSD" has always been far more than a mere collection of code, the
actual code being perhaps one of the least significant reasons that
people are drawn to it and stay around for so long. FreeBSD is first
and foremost a community, for some a community even closer than family.
As with all families, there are frequently squabbles with harsh words
exchanged and feelings hurt, but I hope that no one lets such incidents
come between them and the fundamental realization that, after this much
time spent in one another's company, we're still family whether we all
get along or not. When someone in our family dies, we all grieve.
I may not be as active in FreeBSD these days as I wish I could be, and
I think a certain ebb and flow of involvement with the actual coding
work is only natural given life's other demands and changing
circumstances, but I'm still extremely proud of this community and the
strength it has had to accomplish things that no single one of us could
ever have accomplished by ourselves. Far more than that, it's also
given all of us a world-wide community of friends and people we can
rely on to share a cup of coffee, or even their homes, no matter where
in the world we might be. This is a kindness I experienced many times
in my own travels throughout the world and can never express enough
thanks to the FreeBSD community for.
We can never get Alan back and no words can properly express that loss,
but perhaps his death can serve as the strongest possible reminder to
all of us just what it is we all really came to FreeBSD for and what's
most important about us being here.
- Jordan
On Sunday, June 8, 2003, at 02:04 PM, Will Andrews wrote:
> Alan Eldridge, a member of our development community, passed away
> on June 6, 2003. The KDE on FreeBSD team has put up an In
> Memoriam page here: http://freebsd.kde.org/memoriam/alane.php
>
> He will never be forgotten.
>
> --
> wca
> <mime-attachment>
--
Jordan K. Hubbard
Engineering Manager, BSD technology group
Apple Computer
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