Longtime Linux Wireless Developer Passes Away. RIP Larry Finger

Slashdot reader unixbhaskar shared this report from Phoronix: Larry Finger who has contributed to the Linux kernel since 2005 and has seen more than 1,500 kernel patches upstreamed into the mainline Linux kernel has sadly passed away. His wife shared the news of Larry Finger's passing this weekend on the linux-wireless mailing list in a brief statement.
Reactions are being shared around the internet. LWN writes: The LWN Kernel Source Database shows that Finger contributed to 94 releases in the (Git era) kernel history, starting with 2.6.16 — 1,464 commits in total. He will be missed... In part to his contributions, the Linux wireless hardware support has come a long way over the past two decades.
Larry was a frequent contributor to the Linux Wireless and Linux Kernel mailing lists. (Here's a 2006 discussion he had about Git with Linus Torvalds.) Larry also answered 54 Linux questions on Quora, and in 2005 wrote three articles for Linux Journal. And Larry's GitHub profile shows 122 contributions to open source projects just in 2024.

In Reddit's Linux forum, one commenter wrote, "He was 84 years old and was still writing code. What a legend. May he rest in peace."

Rest in peace, Larry.

[Subsentient]

I never knew the guy but the name rings a bell in all the kernel mailing list parts of my brain. Thank you, Larry. I am old enough to remember when Linux wifi support was the butt of jokes. Probably in no small part thanks to you, that's no longer the case. Rest in peace, dude. Thanks for your service to free software.

Re:

[ls671]

Well, here:
https://www.echovita.com/us/ob... [echovita.com]

If it's the correct Larry Finger, at least they tell you how old he was. The suggested donation to the Cancer Society may also hint he died of cancer.

I'm just slightly disappointed

[93 Escort Wagon]

I was kind of hoping he was the guy who developed the "finger" command. But alas...

In any case, thank you for your contributions Larry Finger.

Re:I'm just slightly disappointed

[dsgrntlxmply]

Eerily, my WiFi connection experienced a moment of silence as I was about to click on this article.

Re: I'm just slightly disappointed

[eclectro]

Comcast is apparently having a wide scale outage as I type this.

Larry probably touched more lives in a positive, invisible way with his work than one might notice or think of. I'm truly grateful for his contributions.

Thanks Larry. I know I had less problems because of your hard work!

A lot of early Linux adopters are not exactly spring chickens anymore either.

Re: I'm just slightly disappointed

[cwesley]

Mod parent up! (Does anyone get mod points anymore?)

Kudos

[vbdasc]

for your society-advancing work, dude, and rest in peace.

This is the way I'd want to spend my retirement years.

still pushing patches at 84

[serviscope_minor]

Coding until his last days, still pushing at 84.

I hope I'll be able to say that. I've always loved coding. I hope my mind stays sharp enough.

Re:

[equivocal]

No, the amazing part is that his kernel contributions *started* when he was 65. (Caveat being that records before 2005 might not be machine searchable, existing only as stone tablets.)