O O Ø O O O O
Jun-ichiro “itojun” Hagino (1970-2007)
Like most OpenBSD contributors, I met itojun at a hackathon—Boston, I think, in 2001. I had heard at the time that he was the IPv6 guy, and I had my first conversation with him on that topic, shortly after we pulled pf into the tree. I just didn’t realize at the time that he was the guy. That came clear later, as I watched itojun near-singlehandedly pull IPv6 support into every major BSD-based operating system. He was tireless, and he was dedicated. He was incredibly good at what he did, and he was remarkably politics free.
Itojun was unique, even among the OpenBSD folks. He was, for instance, the first person I ever saw use two laptops simultaneously—one with each hand. He did this without jest, and without thought. He simply had two things to do at once. He also didn’t sleep—ever. He napped—usually while compiling—so that he never had to stop hacking. We eventually nicknamed these catnaps nanosleep (after the POSIX API, of course). I think anyone who has met him has at least one picture of an itojun nanosleep. We even made a t-shirt.
Last week, I got the email. “Jun-ichiro Hagino has passed away at the age of 37.”
Itojun, you were a truly unique individual. You worked tirelessly to get IPv6 support into every aspect of the BSDs. You were always smiling, always helpful, and always ready to hack. You will be missed by all of us.
Rest in peace, my friend.
Kjell Wooding
November 6, 2007
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