The Debian Project mourns the loss of Peter De Schrijver
Quoting: Debian -- News -- The Debian Project mourns the loss of Peter De Schrijver —
The Debian Project mourns the sudden passing of our fellow developer and friend, Peter De Schrijver.
Many of us knew Peter as a very helpful and dedicated person and we valued his contributions to our project and the Linux community.
Peter was a regular and familiar face in many conferences and meets across the world.
Peter was highly regarded for his technical expertise in problem solving and for his willingness to share that knowledge. When asked "what are you working on?", Peter would often take the time to explain something you thought was extremely complicated understandably, or show you in-person his high technical proficiency in action on such tasks as translating a disassembled binary into C source code.
Peter's work, ideals, and memory leave a remarkable legacy and a loss that is felt around the world not only in the many communities he interacted with but in those he inspired and touched as well.
Our thoughts are with his family.
Update
Debian mentiond his passing 2 weeks after his death.
LWN's comments link to this message:
With an unspeakable sense of loss, I must sadly relate that Peter De Schrijver (also known as p2 or p2mate) passed away two weeks ago.
Peter's overt contributions to the Linux kernel were primarily in clock and power management on ARM SoCs. Software he wrote or co-developed set the foundation for modern Linux power management. The SoC-specific code he wrote enabled millions of devices, many of which are still in use today. An incomplete list includes the Nokia N900 and N9 Linux smartphones; an innumerable collection of OMAP- and Tegra-based smartphones, tablets, E-readers, and development boards; many Nest smart thermostats; and the Nintendo Switch.
Peter was a member of that rare class of engineer whose competence transcends artificial boundaries. He would regularly troubleshoot and solve system-wide engineering problems that spanned the software, digital hardware, and analog hardware domains. I have fond recollections of Peter tracking down an intermittent power management-related glitch in the OMAP SDRAM controller. This bug was serious enough to halt production of devices containing the SoC. the SoC vendor itself could not find the bug. Despite not having access to the RTL, only being able to observe the problem as a black box, Peter found it.
Despite his skill, Peter was never self-aggrandizing. An ideal collaborator, he was always willing to lend his powerful mind to think through tricky problems that others, myself included, often struggled with.
Peter loved the culture of free software. He was a Debian Developer, a regular presence at FOSDEM, and attended many demo parties and free software meetups. I came to realize that for him, this extended to a deep philosophical commitment to the importance of transparent engineering practices to the open societies that many of us still enjoy. Engineering system failures in the aerospace and energy fields were regular topics of conversation.
Peter also knew how to enjoy life beyond engineering. A evening with friends at the pub with fine Belgian lambics was sacramental. He loved electronic music, loved to dance, and loved nature; and often combined the three. His same transcendence of artificial boundaries in engineering extended to an open-minded approach towards life in general. He respected and was grateful for what his ancestors bequeathed him. In turn, he shared that pleasure, gratitude, and knowledge with others.
As for me: I, like many others, have just lost a true and loyal friend. Peter was present for me when few others were. The grief is tempered with the joy of having known Peter during this lifetime, and also, knowing the depth of the legacy he leaves behind.
A memorial web page is here: https://www.ingedachten.be/overlijdensberichten/overlijden-detail/12-07-2024/peter-de-schrijver
- - Paul