In Memoriam

In Memoriam

...Our little systems have their day;
    They have their day and cease to be ... Tennyson

This page is to remember those OpenSolaris members, contributors, and friends who have passed away.

We Remember Fondly

Layne Ethington pianist, Human Rights Campaign member, and OpenSolaris Documentation Community core contributor. Layne passed on June 7th, 2007, and is remembered by his many friends and co-workers inside and outside of Sun for his bright smile, quick wit, and positive attitude.

Joe Kowalski Joe was a long term contributor to OpenSolaris, and Solaris, via PSARC and many other things as well.  His name can be found associated with ARC cases going all the way back to 1992. Most recently he was involved with efforts relating to the integration of the JVM in Solaris.

The indomitable John Birrell, who ported DTrace to FreeBSD, suffered a stroke and passed away on Friday, November 20, 2009. We on Team DTrace knew John to be a remarkably talented and determined software engineer.  As those who have attempted ports can attest, DTrace passes through rough country, and a port to a foreign system is a significant undertaking that requires mastery of both DTrace and (particularly) the target system.  And in being the first to attempt a port, John's challenge was that much greater, and his success in the endeavor a tribute to both his ability and (especially) his tenacity...John, you will be missed, not only by the FreeBSD community upon which you made an indelible mark, but by those of us in the DTrace community who only had the opportunity to work with you more recently.  And while your legacy might remain anonymous to the future generations that will benefit from the fruits of your long labor, we will always know that it never would have happened without you.  Thank you, and farewell.

Bruce Riddle, who was one of the 6 community members who helped convince Sun management to undo the cancellation of Solaris x86 and instead to embrace the community to grow the platform, thus laying the groundwork for what became OpenSolaris.

More information and remembrances from the Solaris x86 mailing list he was an active member of for many years:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/solarisx86/message/50627

Hideki Hiura, who was a long time engineer in the Solaris Globalization group, and made a huge impact on making it possible for people who spoke and wrote a variety of languages to effectively use Solaris, Unix, and free desktop systems in general. Hideki's lasting contributions can be seen from his co-authorship of the X11 i18n specs to his work with the Free Standards Group's openi18n.org as a founder and chair.