For those that do not know already, Seth Vidal (skvidal) passed away last night. I am mentioning here in case people have not already read the news, as I wanted everyone to know. Robin from the Fedora Project has shared details in this post:
Seth was a good friend and an amazing person. I think I remember first meeting him through memo-list at Red Hat (it was an off topic list, where he often championed environmentalism and good social causes and lots of other things!) and went on to know him a lot better as we collaborated in building Func and often met up in Durham and talked shop (and came up with crazy patent ideas for Red Hat to pay us for! Such fun times!). As you know, Func was a major inspiration to this project. His many of his thoughts on Ansible and the way he thought of it meant more to me than anyone, and he provided tons of great advice and help (often on very difficult problems!), in addition to helping lots of you on the list and IRC as many of you can relate.
Without a doubt, this project would not have existed if not for him. It would not have continued beyond it’s first few months without him either. And it’s way better because of him.
As you may know, Seth is the author of yum, you may use it every single day, as well as numerous patches to Ansible (including the yum module!), and was super helpful keeping the Fedora project going in many aspects. He has done a lot for Open Source. This should not be about software though.
Seth was an absolutely great guy, and I will really miss him hugely. Think of him as you use his software and look to what you can improve in the world with what you do. Make a difference.
We will miss you Seth. Words are greatly insufficient.
I had the honor and pleasure of meeting Seth a few weeks ago, and
although I spent just a few hours with him, I immediately got to like
and respect him. Words fail me.
Like JP I had the pleasure of first meeting Seth face-to-face at AnsibleFest. Seth was the guy who introduced me to Ansible in the beginning and was extremely helpful (and patient) toward me as I started working on AWS and Eucalyptus modules. This is a real shock and a terrible tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends. Seth was a great guy and I’m pleased and honoured to have had the opportunity to know, meet and work with him even if only for a relatively short while.
After reading the news on LWN, I was in shock. I've directly
benefited from the great work Seth put into yum, as my earliest days
as a young Linux engineer were when yum was first gaining traction &
I've been using yum ever since.
Crossing paths with Seth on this last felt like a great privilege
after using his software for so long. It is so sad to learn of the
news.
I read the post on HackerNews about him yesterday then while (coincidentally) reading through some of the posts in this group I saw his name come up twice and realized he was a part of this project. He seemed very talented and many of us will be impacted by the contributions he won’t be able to make because of this tragic event. However, it seems a lot of people have been showing appreciation for the work he was able to accomplish while he was around.
I was fortunate enough to have Seth’s support back when he was a sysadmin at Duke University and I was a young undergrad trying to restart the Linux Users Group there. I got to hang out with him at installfests and on the Duke IRC systems; he even stopped by a course I was teaching to other undergrads about the open-source movement. He taught me by example, and I was better off for knowing him. He’s also responsible for planting the seed of the idea in my head that maybe I could live in America without a car. He died doing what he thought was right.
When I started looking into Ansible a few months ago, I was thrilled to see his name associated with the project and was looking forward to getting back in contact with him.
I never met him in real life but I hope I did. I can find his name on a lot of Fedora, Redhat projects. As an ansible user, I did have the honor to talk to him on IRC many times. I received this news as I getting ready for my lunch. I am sad. Great loss. I am with Seth’s family. God bless them.
