Ian Murdock

Wow, he’s working here, as of today. This was cooked on the extra double secret hush-hush; congrats to those involved on the leakage control.

So, what’s it all mean? Ian’s not been stingy with his viewpoints over the years, but I try to base my opinion of people on what they do not what they say, and in this case one word says a whole lot: Debian. And there’s a whole lot more than that to Ian’s story.

If I told you there was a comprehensive plan in place for how Ian’s going to help us mix up GNU/Linux’s virtues of seamless package management and fast-improving user experience with Solaris’ virtues of binary compatibility, observability, and fast-moving kernel innovation, well, I’d be lying. But the technology business is a people business and when you get a chance to bring a good one on board, you do it and sweat the details later.

Here’s one thing though: Ian’s not going to be just working on Solaris. Our systems run GNU/Linux great and to the extent that we’re not getting our fair share of that business, I can’t imagine anyone better-placed to help.

Oh, and here’s a little peek behind the scenes: As of this weekend Ian wasn’t even on the payroll yet and was already in in a peppy little email debate over when to say “Linux” and when to say “GNU” and when to say both. Nobody said this was going to be easy, but let’s have some fun along the way.

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