A well-known figure in the Gnome community, Ximian hacker Ettore Perazzoli passed away last night (here pictured at GUADEC 2001). We do not know the cause of the death, but the Ximian employees blog about the sad news here. This comes as a shock to many, especially as this is the second Ximian person to have passed away recently. Chema Celorio died exactly a month ago during a sky diving event. Our condolences to both families and to their friends at Ximian and Novell.
Ximian’s Ettore Perazzoli Passes Away
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
RIP you will be missed
maybe this isn’t the right place to discuss this? i, like many people in the os world, loved and will miss ettore. maybe you could save a discussion about the appropriatness of the post some other time, possibly not when we are all trying to deal with our grief.
just a thought.
its always sad to read these stories…
even not knowing him, or ever talked to him.. it still affects me somehow. maybe because this community is like a big-family…
rest in peace
wow, that is sad indeed, and by looking at that photo he does not look too old or in bad health…
He lloks like my friend Matt Wagner, only with longer hair.
When anybody dies unexpectedly or without reason, it is always tragic.
Let’s hope Ximian don’t suffer any more loss, lest they begin to think they are cursed.
Here is another picture of Ettore at GUADEC 3 with some Ximian people:
http://www.gnome.org/~jdub/2002/guadec3/106.jpg
I know I’ve seen more pics around (I remember seeing one of him being next to Havoc), but can’t find it now.
It the cold world of computing this sort of news may be somehow strange, but the truth is that behind all this great software we are running on our machines there are human beings who write it. It is shame that we’ve lost some great minds and I would like to express my compassion for the families and for Ximian and Novell. Please accept my sincere and deapest condoleances.
Marc Mironescu
My sincere condolences to Ettore’s family and friends. This is yet another reminder of how precious and fragile life is, and how important it is to appreciate one another… while we still can. Maybe next time there are flamewars over KDE & GNOME, or Linux and OSX or whatever, we should remember that ultimately we are share much more – our common humanity – than whatever divides us at the moment. I’d say that extends to far more than the world of software, and extends to the world, period… like the current terrible situation of war… but that’s another subject. May this tragedy at least be a moment of reflection for all of us. RIP, Ettore, you will be missed.
but at the same time it must be hard for his family and friends to have to see it splashed all over the internet. Especially since it has only been 24 hours. Many people may not even know yet. What if their loved ones wanted to break the news in the private of their or homes?
I’m sure Lord Eugenia will delete my post; however, having just lost my mother, I must say that this article was published in bad taste.
Is the osnews or the national enquirer?
Our condolences to both families and to their friends at Ximian and Novell.
Sounds more to me like Eugenia honestly felt affected by this and wanted to express herself and allow others the opportunity to as well.
So, let us step out of our bitch-about-everything-forum-member modes for a moment and allow this to serve as both an area to virtually mourn and give condolences, as well as a tribute to his life and contributions.
People deal with loss in different ways and to different degrees, there is no need to selfishly turn the attention to yourself and make this into some sort of pathetic flame war.
Please mod me down.
I guess some could consider it a little in bad taste, but it is news.
Of course this leads to questions about whether or not OSNews will publish news of others who die.
Then people will question. Why did you mention news of the death of this person? Why did you mention nothing of this other person? Etc.
Can you “rate” who is worthy to make it to the front page?
Is it someone who is well known? Someone who you knew? Someone who made a difference?
Some people like to grieve in private. Sometimes all the impersonalness of the internet makes us forget that there are real people behind the messages.
Most importantly, condolences to the family.
>Is the osnews or the national enquirer?
No, but I have indeed being affected by Ettore’s death as we had an email exchange about his app, F-SPOT, just last week.
>having just lost my mother
>I must say that this article was published in bad taste.
Ettore was a public person, people knew him across the world. He was the lead of Evolution among other things.
>I’m sure Lord Eugenia will delete my post
It is nice when you already know you are crossing the line and you hide your guilt in such an obvious way.
Look people, don’t turn this story into a flamewar, this is a moment of respect. OSNews will publish articles in any way we feel that is interesting for some people, including ourselves. It is a free-form site. Read the “contact us” page for more.
End of discussion.
Looking at the pictures and listening to the songs from his old band makes it hard to believe he’s not around. From the two songs linked on his site, he was a pretty cool guitar player, in addition to geek extrordinaire. Just thumbing through his site and the blogs of his friends and reading all the posts from people who knew him online, in person, both, or by his work, it feels like yeah, it’s a sad day for Ximian and OSS, but the world’s also lost an overall pretty cool guy.
All thigs on this earth come to pass, some earlier than they should. My condolences to his family and friend, and may he continue to live in their hearts and through the good things he brought to this world.
Speaking of Microsoft, though in no way relating to the previous post, lets all remember that a lot of real people work there, too. Some a lot like Ettore. Just doing their jobs. It kind of goes back to a person being smart and a group being dumb. If someone told you the world was ending, you’d act smart about it. If it was broadcast on TV, it’d be fear and panic city. We have flame fests all the time, and especially mostly-one-sided ones against Microsoft, but they’re all real people, too, who just happen to work for some higher ups who are weird. Even Ballmer is a real person, and probably has a lot of excellent qualities as a human being, despite his appearance in the media.
If you had power, it changes you, makes you less human, but go ahead and think otherwise.
to hang with and shoot the breeze with.
sorry for your loss(those that knew him)
Both Ettore and Chema made great contributions to the Open Source movement and to the best desktop in the world. My friends you will be missed Rest in Peace
Vio Con Dios
are the guys at Ximian overworked without enough time off?
Riposa in pace
Suddenly all those discussions about favorite OSes, languages and apps became irrelevant.
I didn’t knew this guy, but going through these messages I see that I actually use a lot of his work, and I feel very sorry for losing such a creative mind.
Rest in peace, and all my best thoughts for his family and all who knew him.
I did not know Ettore or Chema.
But I would like to offer my condolences, as I have been in a similar situation; that of losing two members of my family within a short time.
I doubt that you will be having a Merry Christmas or a Happy New Year, which will be worse, too.
For you, I wish the gift of time; time to grieve, time to get your bearings, time to eventually recover and move on from these events. It was denied to you before, and I very much hope will not be so again.
digitaleon.
P.S. Yes, lets’ just press “Report Abuse” on every post even if it’s on-topic eh??
one passed away, but one’s code still alive
from http://perazzoli.org/blog.php
last message:
Saturday, November 29, 2003
I have committed a to-do list for F-Spot on GNOME CVS. There is a lot of cool work to do, so check it out!
http://cvs.gnome.org/bonsai/cvsblame.cgi?file=f-spot/TODO&rev=&root…
—-
condolences to the family
Yeah, it really is pretty pathetic when somebody finds something to bitch about in a damn death annuncement/obituary. Get over it already and let us be sad.
Its sad to hear about something like this, especially happening so close to another recent loss. I only hope that their families can take some consolation in the fact that there are so many people in the community that sincerely appreciate their contribution.
Condolences to all who knew him.
But what is Really sad is too see people(Beavis & Mr. Banned) using this tragic news as a vehicle to attack others.
One day nobody will miss you.
Let us remember how each of these brave souls lived.
They spent their time doing what they believed in, far more than many can say. They contributed to the welfare of the planet. They never walked the dark path of greed and how much you can take. Instead they spent their lives exploring how much they could give.
The world will miss these two. Rest in peace, kind people.
It’s sad to see someone so young pass away– Even though I didn’t know him. My condoleances to his family and his friends. Since he was involved in Evolution and other Gnome projects, he must have been a good contributor to the OSS world.
It makes me sick though to see people turning this into a flamewar. People have no respect these days.
Sh*t, I did not Ettore but I exchanged emails with Chema on the Ximian System Tools project.
Something it makes me think of when I hear sad news like this:
Sitting around the other day
Tapping my feet
A publication came to my door
Said you died
And gone to sleep
I couldn’t shed a tear
I never knew you well
but I will miss you just the same
Singing please rest easy
down on Chestnut street
because I am hearing that
old frieght train
Know its going to let you in…
–Firehose “In Memory of Elizabeth Cotton”
It is not good.
🙁
Condolences to the family and Anna.
About Ximian people… I dont’t know… Everything is in this “Secret” … The details of his death are not being made public… in #gnome and #mono channels people talk about Ximian-Novell fire him … depressed…
I mean… I think that this kind of news are bery private things… only family must know… But if you talk in your website, blog, etc … then, if you want to make it public… Write all the truth.