 | This articlecontains one or more duplicated citations. The reason given is: DuplicateReferences script detected: It is recommended to usenamed references to consolidate citations that are used multiple times.(February 2026) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Ian Murdock | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Murdock in April 2008 | |
| Born | Ian Ashley Murdock (1973-04-28)April 28, 1973 Konstanz, West Germany |
| Died | December 28, 2015(2015-12-28) (aged 42) San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Purdue University (BS) |
| Occupation | Programmer |
| Known for | Debian |
| Spouse | [1] |
| Children | 3 |
Ian Ashley Murdock (April 28, 1973 – December 28, 2015) was an Americansoftware engineer, known for being the founder of theDebian project andProgeny Linux Systems, a commercialLinux company.
Although Murdock's parents were both fromSouthern Indiana,[2] he was born inKonstanz, West Germany, on April 28, 1973, where his father was pursuing postdoctoralresearch. The family returned to the United States in 1975, and Murdock grew up inLafayette, Indiana, beginning in 1977 when his father became a professor ofentomology atPurdue University. Murdock graduated fromHarrison High School in 1991,[3] and then earned hisbachelor's degree incomputer science from Purdue in 1996.
While a college student, Murdock founded the Debian project in August 1993, and wrote theDebian Manifesto in January 1994. Murdock conceived Debian as a Linux distribution that embraced open design, contributions, and support from thefree software community. He named Debian after his then-girlfriend (later wife) Debra Lynn Roundy, and himself.[4] They later married, had three children, and divorced in January 2008.[5]
In January 2006, Murdock was appointed Chief Technology Officer of theFree Standards Group and elected chair of theLinux Standard Base workgroup.[6] He continued as CTO of theLinux Foundation when the group was formed from the merger of the Free Standards Group andOpen Source Development Labs.
Murdock left the Linux Foundation to joinSun Microsystems in March 2007[7] to leadProject Indiana, which he described as "taking the lesson that Linux has brought to the operating system and providing that forSolaris", making a fullOpenSolaris distribution withGNOME anduserland tools fromGNU plus a network-based package management system.[8] From March 2007 to February 2010, he was Vice President of Emerging Platforms at Sun,[9] until the companymerged with Oracle and he resigned his position with the company.[10]
From 2011 until 2015, Murdock was Vice President of Platform and Developer Community atSalesforce Marketing Cloud, based inIndianapolis.[10][11]
From November 2015 until his death, Murdock was working forDocker, Inc.[10]
Murdock died on December 28, 2015, in San Francisco.[12][13][14] Though initially no cause of death was released,[15][16] in July 2016 it was announced his death had been ruled asuicide.[17][18] The police confirmed that the cause of death was due toasphyxiation caused byhanging himself with a vacuum cleaner electrical cord.[19][20]
The last tweets from Murdock's Twitter account first announced that he would commit suicide, then said he would not. He reported having been accused of assault on a police officer after having been himself assaulted and sexually humiliated[21] by the police, then declared an intent to devote his life to opposing police abuse. His Twitter account was taken down shortly afterwards.[22][23]
The San Francisco police confirmed he was detained, saying he matched the description in a reported attempted break-in and that he appeared to be drunk.[24][25] The police stated that he became violent and was ultimately taken to jail on suspicion of four misdemeanor counts. They added that he did not appear to be suicidal and was medically examined prior to release. Later, police returned on reports of a possible suicide. The citymedical examiner's office confirmed Murdock was found dead.[26][27]
The autopsy report noted extensivebruise marks found on Murdock's body, and a medical history of alcohol abuse, psychological disorders andAsperger syndrome.[28][29]
| New creation Founding of Debian Project | Debian Project Leader August 1993 – March 1996 | Succeeded by |
| General |  | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| People | |||||
| Derivatives |
| ||||
| Software | |||||
| Others | |||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| Other | |
