[Article 1. 5 years] Reprinted with permission from Free Software Fellowship.
The open-source mafia has put too much pressure on volunteers in recent years. Let’s take a look at those who didn’t survive.
We believe that these cases demonstrate that there are disruptions in the open source project related to work-life balance and in the systematic pressure of volunteers to work for free.
If you know of cases or have more evidence about the cases already listed, write to supporter@fsfellowship. news.
Forty-year-old, single.
This is by far the most common case. Frans Pop sent several written e-mails recounting his complaints related to Debian/Ubuntu culture. He sent a written resignation to the private Debian gossip network (leaked) the day before Debian Day. His suicide didn’t take place until 4 days later, it still turns out he’s thinking about it for Debian Day itself. His parents discovered a written suicide note. They sent an email to Steve McIntyre from Debian mentioning that Pop’s biggest fear was his paintings for Debian.
There is a Debian. Day microsite to commit suicide on top of this death.
See Debian Disguised. Work for more details.
46 years old
Kamphuis went missing near Bodo, Norway, on August 20, 2018. Coincidentally, it was the same day that Frans Pop committed suicide, albeit 8 years later. They both come from the same country, the Netherlands.
Coincidentally, Kamphuis was born on Australia Day and Wikileaks was founded by Washington’s most wanted Australian journalist, Julian Assange.
42 years old, divorced, children.
Murdock was the founder of Debian and a well-respected and reputable engineer. It is believed that he was alone in police custody during the Christmas period. This reflects the effect that Debian can have on the family life of volunteers.
46 years old, single, no children, trans
Lucy Wayland had speculated about suicide in posts.
The coroner’s report tells us that the cause of death is a twist of fate under the influence of alcohol. This type of alcoholism is considered a form of self-harm.
Lucy Wayland for help, according to the coroner’s report.
Lucy’s turn of fate occurred at a time of intense negativity in Debian, the Debian Christmas lynchings of 2018.
34 years old, married, 3 children
Schmalzing’s death is publicly described as a twist of fate at work. Debian-Private provides more details, stating that he was potentially alone on the roof on a Saturday and then somehow fell off. In Germany, the coroner’s report is secret, which is why other people refer to such deaths as a fluke, either a true fluke or a suicide.
William Lee Irwin III asked friends in 2011.
Someone posted a comment suggesting that the Debian developers would give him a job, but in hindsight, it never came to fruition. He’s gone.
47 years old, married and father of two children.
Richard, a flexible software activist in the UK.
Software Coop has a blog.
There is an archived tribute page with many main points and names of contributors.
Stourbridge News reported him missing.
This turns out to be FSFE-related suicide FSFE. La, it is the Germans who claim to follow Richard Stallman when in fact more than 60% of their investment comes from Google, Red Hat and Ubuntu. Georg Greve and Karsten Gerloff either commented on the tribute page. We discovered Richard’s call in the archives of the FSFE-UK mailing list.
We discover a longer story of his on this page.
He published an article about his work with the LTSP in schools.
26 years old, single, with no children.
Wikipedia about Aaron Swartz.
Swartz had been pursued/prosecuted through U. S. federal prosecutors in connection with the distribution of educational magazines.
18 years old, single
The article on Segment Fault mentions cyberbullying
He had created an enormous amount of code without getting paid when he was still under 18.
The developer of the BSNES emulator died of an overdose in Japan.
29 years old, single
Artist, Game Designer at Parallax Visions, Museum of Virtual Art, open art.
Bordlee developed a virtual reality simulator for depression after suffering from it himself. She describes the harassment that took its toll on her.
LinkedIn and an obituary and tributes page where they are invited.
Twenty-five years old, single.
Thiemo Seufer was late in Debian on December 25th, Christmas Day 2008. In the early hours of December 26, he died in a car accident. We do not have any official documents on the nature of this accident or who is responsible. .
People who work behind are 300% more likely to be in a car accident.
wedded
Adrian had a central attack in Switzerland just as local developers were presenting their DebConf13 offering.
39 years old, single
Elias spent time with an FSFE co-worker, Roman Willi, on a hike on a Saturday. You veered off the trail and fell or slipped (German link).
I have a schlechte Nachricht mitzuteilen. Am Samstag Nachmittag war Elias mit unserem gemeinsamen Freund Roman Willi auf einer Wanderung in den Bündner Bergen. Beim Abstieg hat Elias auf a un petit Abschnitt, in der Grössenordung von one hundred and two hundred meters, un autre, kürzere Route gewählt als Roman. Es war keine besonders gefährliche Stelle. Steiler Grashang and a bachelor Felsen. Elias est auf seinem Weg abgestürzt. While Roman bei ihm angekommen war hat est ihn bewusstlos aber atmend angetroffen. Da kein Handyempfang vorhanden war musste Roman auf dem nahen Wanderweg zur nächsten Alp rennen. Das hat ihn etwa eine viertel Stunde gekostet. Rega is alarmed. Mit dem Bauernsohn sie zu zweit zurück zur Unfallstelle gespurtet. Kurz darauf war auch die Rega vor Ort. La Rega Ärztin konnte leider nur noch den Tod feststellen. Elias had a schwere Schädelfraktur et Hirnblutungen davongetragen. Er war mit Sicherheit sofort nach dem Aufprall bewusstlos.
Le genauere Ort war der Abstieg vom Glegghorn auf die Fläscheralp. Les Bergspezialisten von der Polizei waren heute Sonntag bei der Unglücksstelle. Ihr Befund war dass von oben, wo Elias eingestiegen ist, keine spezielle Gefahr zu erkennen war. For a vagabond like Elias War, It is in Ordnung diesen Weg zu wählen.
Informationen zu einem Abschied werden in wenigen Tagen folgen.
Sollte ich jemanden vergessen haben jemanden in den Email Verteiler aufzunehmen, bitte dieses Mail an den Betreffenden weiterleiten.
43 years old, single
Brandes and Meiwes were IT professionals at Alemania. No we can determine whether they were dealing with open source or the FSFE.
Meiwes posted a message asking them to eat the volunteers. It’s a lot like starting a new open-source project.
The similarities with open source don’t end there: Brandes and Meiwes videotaped the entire encounter, much like the photographic evidence of wrongdoing at DebConf19.
Meiwes is in prison and probably won’t be free again anytime soon.
The video of the cannibalism is lost in police records. Looking for volunteers for a recreation
When the lynch mob attacked Stallman in 2019, it wasn’t long before other people wondered if he was threatening suicide.