Debian User Forums

I feel that it is only fair to address this on the forums. Many of you will know the poster dasein who was a regular here at FDN. His contributions were at once thorough, prolific, knowledgeable, helpful, humorous and controversial. He left these forums last August after which he and I were in regular email correspondence.

dasein was terminally ill but he did not want the details of his illness to be known, so I will respect his wishes. The last time I heard from him was in December when his health was declining rapidly and he stopped replying to emails. In spite of emailing him since, I have had no response and he was normally very quick to respond. I also note that golinux sent him a PM several weeks ago which he did not even pick up. I have no clues as to his real-life identity and he wanted it kept that way.

Given these indications, I believe that he may have passed away and I think it's worth noting. People do not talk about their personal lives much at all on Linux fora, but the irony is that communities are made by people who have their own lives, concerns, worries and issues, and when important community members leave or pass I think it's worth paying respects and giving thanks for the work they did. As much as I would love dasein to make a reappearance on these boards and prove me wrong, the chances of that are somewhere between highly unlikely and impossible.

So I think this is nice juncture to say thank you for the inspiration he gave. He was certainly hugely helpful in my learning of Linux last year and I wouldn't have got as far as I did without him.

Well said and thank you for your thoughts. The PM I sent to dasein on 2018-03-20 will remain in my outbox to remind me of the great loss to this community and to me personally.

It is painfully sad to see good people go. As you have said, maybe there is slight hope he is still out there somewhere, only unable to respond. Sadly, we might never know.

He was always helpful to everyone, and his posts were a joy to read. Even to the newbies, his advices were much more helpful and sincere than most. My adventures with Debian would not have started if it were not for him and his help on this very forum. Now those adventures have become a part of my everyday life.

Thank you, whoever you really were. It has been an honour.

Lysander, thanks for posting this. I have been wondering where dasein disappeared to. I tried searching for him a couple of times with no results. I do miss his posts here.

Did dasein ever share any projects of his?

dasein was at once light-hearted and profound. He had a way of making simple and perfect points. His posting history speaks for itself.

dasein always encouraged people to think at a superposition of big- and little-picture. He was quick, and correct, to point out that security is as broad as the NSA and as small as one's capacitor. Some of his most memorable posts were security- and privacy-related insights. He taught users to think outside of the box. He always taught users to research on their own.

He was public about great ideas and private about himself. The closest thing I ever found to who he "may be" outside of the forums was a snippet in a post by timbgo (miro/miroR on other websites):
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... 15#p552714

timbgo wrote:whom I respect, like dasein, who is Osamu Aoke, the author of the superb Debian Reference Guide...

This offshoot comment has been up for years. I never bothered to investigate; I kinda wish I had now, even if I were wrong. I sorta assumed dasein would just "come back eventually."

So much for assumptions.

Very nice post Lysander!

He will be greatly missed, I enjoyed our disagreements just as much as our friendly banter. Us old *nix guys are becoming like dinosaurs unfortunately. We have a few good posts from him on Slackware forums as well, and he motivated me to create the Slackware thread here. As Lysander said, one day he stopped logging in and posting....

I hope there is a way to "preserve" his posts so they are never purged in maintenance etc... Unless that is not a risk.

n_hologram wrote:The closest thing I ever found to who he "may be" outside of the forums was a snippet in a post by timbgo (miro/miroR on other websites):
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... 15#p552714

timbgo wrote:whom I respect, like dasein, who is Osamu Aoke, the author of the superb Debian Reference Guide...

A quick SP search found a github site under that name. The activity dates align with the timeline suggested by Lysander:
https://github.com/osamuaoki

On that page there is a link to:
https://people.debian.org/~osamu/

And the README on that page points to this:
http://wiki.debian.org/OsamuAoki

If those assumptions are correct, dasein was a giant in the Debian community.

n_hologram wrote:Did dasein ever share any projects of his?

That would be interesting, wouldn't it. The only thing he shared with me was a section of his doctoral thesis. I won't lie, it's way too advanced for me to make head or tail of. I wonder if anyone knows of anything else he worked on.

n_hologram wrote:He always taught users to research on their own.

And how, yes. He described himself as "High Priest of RTFM". He was consistent right to the end. In fact the last sentence he ever wrote in an email to me was on that very point:

No one can be an expert on everything, but yes, I firmly believe that developing one's own expertise is an inherently worthwhile thing, doubly so as regards "fundamentals."

n_hologram wrote:The closest thing I ever found to who he "may be" outside of the forums was a snippet in a post by timbgo (miro/miroR on other websites):
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... 15#p552714

I don't know where this poster got that information from but I don't think it's accurate. I don't know of Osamu Aoke, but one would think his native language was Japanese, whereas dasein specifically said that his native language was English. Secondly, the Debian Reference Guide was last updated by Aoke as recently as March 2018. From the tone of dasein's emails in late 2017, the last thing on his mind would have been updating a Debian reference guide especially as he had moved off Debian by then and had a strong dislike of systemd. I don't think we'll ever really know, which is how he wanted it.

Good post, n_hologram. Very nicely-written.

@Lysander: I wasn't sure either; I just remember shortly afterwards casually looking up the name and brushing it aside.

I had also found the github et al. referenced by @golinux, and did note the parallel activity there and here. The people.debian.org account is consistent as well, as the most recent contribution there was in early January.

HuangLao referenced dasein as an "old nix guy," so that was the first thing that made me question the validity of timbgo/miro's claim (check the 2014 Wheezy party). I never inquired as to dasein's native or first language; after all, his username is German.

The only reference of any 'dasein' for site:debian.org are between two bug trackers.

Lysander wrote:I don't know of Osamu Aoke, but one would think his native language was Japanese, whereas dasein specifically said that his native language was English

This one factor indicates they are not the same person. dasein's language skills were impeccable. Osamu Aoke's communications are adequate but clearly ESL.

n_hologram wrote: I never inquired as to dasein's native or first language; after all, his username is German.

That was merely a reflection of his intellect...on a Slackware/Salix forum his screen name was in Latin, and yes it reflected his age and attitude.....

I have always enjoyed reading Daesin's posts. From the frivolous chuckle to hard facts, he always spoke his mind.

an I thought I had problems
gettin a job that forces me to use - the unspeakable wind blows
rip spam hunter

One of the most memorable people on this forum. On forums like this you never really know what people are going through in their personal lives.

dasein taught me much and I will miss him greatly, these boards are lessened by his absence.

Really sad. This forum is kind of part of my life now and knowing you guys/gals by your handles equates to personally knowing you. dasein was one of the people who greatly and incessantly helped me after I moved to Debian. Huge loss to the forum and to the Linux community. May he rest in peace with the angels.

I would like to thank dasein for what he did for me. He frequently would give me "heck" for some of the things I did, but in the end he got me to search, read, and think. I appreciate all that even though it seemed at times that he enjoyed jumping on my case. But I understand now that it was a huge learning experience. Thank you dasein. Good journey to wherever you are headed.

I personally did not know him and I did not encounter him in the forum, but after reading the feedback, I got the impression that this person really was deserving of the Debian community. If the worst thing happened, let him rest in peace.

I still hope dasein has not met with an untimely fate and is on an exteneded subatical. I dislike partaking in rumors and dare I say here say.

best regards and privacy to all that have for one reason or another left this place and found brighter ways to live life.

llivv wrote:I dislike partaking in rumors and dare I say here say.

Neither rumours nor hearsay. This is a direct quote from dasein from an email to me back in November:

I'm old before my time and it's entirely reasonable to suspect that I'm on the last year or two of my life.

I know it's a little hard to visualise his situation since I haven't given any details away, but as I said, back in December his condition worsened severely. So it's more than likely that he has passed away, as much as I wish that weren't the case.

I struggled for a while with this thread: if I should make it, how I should word it etc. But I believe it's in the interests of the community since he was so well-liked and respected here.