In remembrance of Dan Williams [LWN.net]

The following was written by Dave Hansen and Thomas Gleixner.

The Linux Kernel community mourns the unexpected and premature passing
of Dan Williams.

Dan was a computer scientist with a focus on storage, persistent memory,
filesystems and trusted computing. Aside from his outstanding technical
contributions he served as a member and chairman of the Linux Foundation
Technical Advisory Board.

His involvement with the Linux kernel started after an internship, where
someone in the IT department exposed him to both the kernel and the
concept of open source. In his internship, he had to work with expensive
high-end RAID storage devices and he really wanted to have something like
this for his home computer setup. When he discovered that Linux had
recently gained software RAID support, his dream of a RAID storage system
at home was just a download away. The ability to freely download, use and
modify the code got him hooked; even more so when he understood that he
could contribute back to share his enhancements with others. From there, it
was a logical consequence that he pursued a career as a professional Linux
kernel developer. His earliest traces of activity in the kernel community
date back to 2004.

His early work was focused on drivers around storage technology. Following
that success, he was tasked with the near-impossible mission to introduce
support for a new storage technology, persistent memory, even before the
hardware existed. Despite the reluctance of the filesystems and storage
maintainers to cater for a hardware company’s technology moonshot, Dan
played a key role in the introduction of fundamentally new concepts (DAX)
for this type of device and its application to existing
filesystems. Building on that achievement, he led the introduction of the
next generation technology named Compute Express Link (CXL) and contributed
to the specification and concepts of secure devices in the context of
trusted computing.

Equally important as his technical achievements – if not more so – are his
contributions to the human side of the Linux community and society at
large. Due to his own life experience of navigating his mixed heritage, he
was a dedicated advocate and mentor for minorities in the kernel community,
in the corporate context and in general society. His remarkable ability to
calm down heated discussions with a well received portion of humor and
playful infectious laughter, but also with a clear and honest reminder to
everyone involved to focus on facts, will be truly missed.

His engagement as a member and chairman of the Linux Foundation Technical
Advisory Board is a testimony for this. He significantly contributed to the
interpretation of the Code of Conduct and the actual implementation in
practice, to the Kernel Contribution Maturity model and the documentation
of Inclusive Terminology.

One of his former managers said about him: “He’s the kindest and, at the
same time, the most unwavering person on the planet”. That’s definitely an
exception in the Linux kernel community where a lot of people are
unwavering, but not necessarily kind about it.

His interests went way beyond all of this. He was generally interested in
all aspects of life, from human interaction to politics, technology of all
sorts, philosophy and beyond. A conversation with him in and outside of the
technical space was always enriching, enjoyable and filled with a good
portion of his wicked humor.

He was also a passionate competitive Latin ballroom dancer. A passion which
made him meet and which he shared with the love of his life Catherine, who
supported him through all the highs and lows of his career, but definitely
with an opinion. When Dan shared a flight with Linus, he texted her to ask
what she wanted to say to him. Her answer was a dry “Merge windows suck!”.

His love for Catherine and his dedication for their three kids are known to
everyone who had the privilege and the pleasure to get close to him. It’s
heartbreaking that they are suddenly left behind without him. Our hearts
and thoughts are with Catherine, their kids and their families.

For sure everyone would prefer to suffer through merge windows than having
to grieve his absence, though the traces Dan left through his kindness,
friendship, technical work, his humor and incredible laughter will remain
woven into our lives. The French poet Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote in
‘The Little Prince’: “In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them
I shall be laughing.”

Dan’s traces will always bring back grief, but they should also make us
look up to the laughing star he left to comfort us.

If you want to express your condolences please send an email to
djbw@tglx.de. It will be passed on to the ones who he loved most.

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