// Tracklist

1. The Manifesto

   August 1993 Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana A 20-year-old writes a manifesto And changes everything

   Dorm room at Purdue, twenty years old CRT monitor casting its glow Linux is chaos, distros are a mess S.L.S. is broken, I can do it best Late night coding while the campus sleeps Building something the world’s gonna keep Not for profit, not for fame Just to prove that free can win the game

   I got a vision burning in my chest Software developed in the open, nothing less Community-driven, not some corporate scheme A thousand contributors sharing one dream Quality matters, we maintain with care Every package handled like it’s precious and rare The user comes first, that’s the foundation Building a system for a generation

   This is the manifesto, written in code A declaration for the open road Developed freely in the spirit of guh-new Twenty years old and I’m breaking through This is the manifesto, put it in ink A new way forward, a new way to think From a dorm room in Indiana To every server, every scanner

   January ninety-four, I put it down in text The Debian way, what’s coming next “Developed openly in the spirit of Linux and guh-new” That’s the promise, and I’m seeing it through No closed doors, no secret handshakes Every decision the community makes Name it after love, name it after her Deb plus Ian, let the future blur

   They say a kid can’t change the world But watch me try They say ideals don’t compile But watch them fly From West Lafayette to everywhere A philosophy in the air

   This is the manifesto, written in code A declaration for the open road Developed freely in the spirit of guh-new Twenty years old and I’m breaking through This is the manifesto, put it in ink A new way forward, a new way to think From a dorm room in Indiana The future’s calling, do you hear the signal?

   August 16th, 1993 The Debian Project begins He was just a kid with an idea He had no idea how far it would go

2. Deb + Ian

   Met her at Purdue, she was everything Debra Lynn, yeah, she made his heart sing Two kids talking futures, late night calls Building dreams together down those college halls She believed in him when nobody else would Saw the vision when no one understood So when it came time to name his creation He wrote their love into the foundation

   Deb plus Ian, that’s the equation Two names combined for a new generation Running on servers from here to the moon Deb plus Ian, Deb-Ian Love compiled, love in bloom

   ‘93, ‘94, they tied the knot Built a family with everything they got Three kids came, a life taking shape While the project grew, spreading state to state Every apt-get install, every upgrade Carries the name of the promise they made He gave her immortality in code A love letter on every machine that’s loaded

   Deb plus Ian, that’s the equation Two names combined for a new generation Running on servers from here to the moon Deb plus Ian, Deb-Ian Love compiled, love in bloom

   Some people carve their names in trees Some people write them in the sand He carved their names in infrastructure Running across every land From embedded systems to the cloud From the server room to space Deb plus Ian, still together In every install, every place

   Now every time you boot that system up You’re invoking something that was once enough A snapshot of a moment, ‘93 When two names merged into a legacy She’s the Deb, he’s the Ian in the name A love story hidden in the frame The code remembers what it’s built upon Deb plus Ian, living on

   Deb plus Ian Running on a million machines Deb plus Ian More permanent than wedding rings

3. The Social Contract

   ‘96, he’s walking off the stage Twenty-three years old, turning the page Handed Bruce the keys, said “take it from here” Built it strong enough to outlast a career Graduated Purdue, diploma in hand But the real degree was the thing he’d planned A system that don’t need a single man Principles over personalities, that’s the plan

   July of ‘97, they put it in writing A social contract, no more infighting “Deb-Ian will remain one hundred percent free” Not a suggestion, that’s a guarantee Give back to the community, hide no flaws Priorities straight, users come first, that’s the cause Every word deliberate, every line a vow Carved it into stone, feel the weight of it now

   This is the social contract, signed in trust Promises made that will never rust Bigger than one man, bigger than fame Write the rules down, let them carry the name This is the social contract, written to last Building the future on the lessons of the past

   The D.F.S.G. laid down the law Free redistribution, source code for all No discrimination, no fields denied License must be open, nothing to hide These words became the definition Open source gospel, the whole world would listen From a mailing list to a movement rising Ian stepped back, but his words kept flying

   Some founders hold on till the bitter end Grip the wheel until the whole thing bends But he let it go, gave the people the keys Stepped back from the throne, let the community lead That’s the paradox of legacy You gotta give it up to make history

   This is the social contract, signed in trust Promises made that will never rust Bigger than one man, bigger than fame Write the rules down, let them carry the name This is the social contract, written to last Building the future on the lessons of the past

   Deb-Ian will remain free That’s the promise That’s the legacy

4. Apt-Get

   ‘99, Slink drops and the game has changed Package management rearranged No more hunting down libraries one by one No more conflicts, no more damage done Type the command, watch the magic flow Apt-get install, sit back, watch it go Dependencies resolving in a chain Never have to feel that frustration again

   Apt-get, apt-get install One command to rule them all Apt-get, apt-get upgrade This is how the future’s made No more dependency hell Deb-Ian does it well Apt-get, apt-get install One command to rule them all

   Two hundred developers, thousands of packages deep Infrastructure running while the world’s asleep From the server rack to the desktop screen The cleanest system that you’ve ever seen Other distros watching, taking notes This is how a real package manager floats Ubuntu coming, they gon’ build on this Standing on the shoulders of the genesis

   Apt-get, apt-get install One command to rule them all Apt-get, apt-get upgrade This is how the future’s made No more dependency hell Deb-Ian does it well Apt-get, apt-get install One command to rule them all

   Every library linked Every conflict solved Every package synced Problems all resolved This is automation This is how we build Technical foundation Ian’s vision fulfilled

   The terminal glowing green on black Type the words and there’s no turning back Repositories deep, mirrors worldwide Open source flowing like a rising tide This the peak before the fall begins Last track where everybody wins Celebrate the code, celebrate the craft Apt-get install, watch the future draft

   Apt-get install Apt-get upgrade Apt-get The Deb-Ian way

5. Sun Sets

   2007, corner office, VP on the door From a dorm room dreamer to the corporate floor Sun Microsystems, Emerging Platforms lead Project Indiana, planting Solaris seeds On paper he’s arrived, got the title and the check But something in the mirror doesn’t quite connect The higher that you climb, the farther you can fall And the cracks are spreading underneath it all

   Sun sets, sun sets On the company, on the marriage, on the silhouette Sun sets, sun sets Some things you build can’t save you from regret The name lives on but the love is gone Sun sets

   August of that year, papers getting filed Fifteen years together, three kids, and now exiled Deb plus Ian, that was the promise made Now the plus sign’s broken, just a memory that stays She gets the house, he gets the corner view The project keeps their name, but the love is through Deb-Ian runs on servers coast to coast While the marriage that inspired it becomes a ghost

   Sun sets, sun sets On the company, on the marriage, on the silhouette Sun sets, sun sets Some things you build can’t save you from regret The name lives on but the love is gone Sun sets

   Oracle’s coming, twenty-ten they swallow Sun Another empire ending, another era done He walks out the building with his box of things VP of nothing now, see what tomorrow brings From open source messiah to a resume line The industry keeps moving, leaving him behind

   The irony is heavy if you stop and think He wrote their names in code, an unbreakable link But the flesh and blood version couldn’t make it last The software outlived the love that built the past Every apt-get install still whispers Deb and Ian But the couple that it honored, they stopped believing Sun sets on Solaris, sun sets on the ring Sun sets on everything

   Sun sets On everything he built Sun sets On everything

6. Containers

   Twenty-eleven, new gig, VP again ExactTarget, building platforms, but where are the friends? Salesforce comes calling, acquisition complete Corner office, stock options, but the victory’s bittersweet He’s packaging solutions while his life’s uncontained Dependencies hidden, but the errors remain Smiling in the meetings, dying in the drive home Success on the surface, but he’s running alone

   Containers, containers Isolated processes, no one maintains us Containers, containers Running in production but the host can’t sustain us Everything packaged, everything sealed Everything hidden, nothing revealed Containers

   November twenty-fifteen, Docker calls his name The hottest tech in infrastructure, peak of the game Four weeks on the job, and the calendar’s thin December’s coming fast, and the walls closing in Girlfriend gone, eviction notice on the door Bottles in the kitchen, empties on the floor Connection’s hard to find when you’re so containerized Now the alcohol’s the only thing that quiets the mind

   Containers, containers Isolated processes, no one maintains us Containers, containers Running in production but the host can’t sustain us Everything packaged, everything sealed Everything hidden, nothing revealed Containers

   Memory limits getting tighter CPU throttled to the bone Container logs nobody’s reading Health check failing, all alone No one’s watching the dashboard No one sees the exit code Container’s about to terminate Under the weight of the load

   The irony’s so thick you could package it up He built the tools for isolation, now he can’t interrupt The process running silent in his head every night Dependencies unresolved, and there’s no one to write A patch for what’s broken in the kernel of his soul Containerized existence taking its toll December twenty-fifth, the countdown begins Three days left to live, and nobody gets in

   Containers Running Isolated Alone

7. DecemberE

   December twenty-sixth, Pacific Heights at night Eleven-thirty PM, something isn’t right Neighbor’s door, he’s banging, trying to get in Police arrive, and that’s where the nightmare begins Detained at Steiner, put him in the car They say he hurt himself, banging on the bars Treated and released, but the story’s not done Three hours later, here he comes, back where he begun

   December, December The night nobody will remember the same December, December The tweets, the cuffs, the allegations of pain Who do you believe? What really happened that night? December

   Two-forty AM, back at the same address Banging on the doors, screaming, he’s a mess Four misdemeanor counts, twenty-five thousand bail From VP at Docker to a San Francisco jail Then the phone comes out, the tweets start to fly “We’re the police, we can do whatever the fuck we want” “We’re the police, we always win” - that’s the quote Alleged they beat him, humiliated him too A man unraveling where everyone can view

   December, December The night nobody will remember the same December, December The tweets, the cuffs, the allegations of pain Who do you believe? What really happened that night? December

   “I’m not committing suicide today” He typed those words then put the phone away “I’ll write this all up first” - the blog he’d never post Friends calling cops for wellness checks on the coast The same cops he accused, now checking on his life The irony cuts deeper than any knife

   Twitter’s watching, the tech world’s alarmed The founder of Deb-Ian, sounding so harmed He said he’d dedicate his life to fight abuse But the promised documentation never came loose The tweets go dark, the night keeps getting long Something’s very broken, something’s very wrong December twenty-seventh fading into black No one knows the truth, and Ian’s not coming back

   December The tweets The silence The end

8. Forty-Two

   December twenty-eighth, evening falls They find him in his home, beyond these walls Green Street, twenty-four hundred block The founder of Deb-Ian, the clock has stopped Forty-two years old, born in seventy-three From manifesto dreams to this tragedy A vacuum cleaner cord, they call it suicide But the questions multiply, the doubts divide

   Forty-two, the answer to everything The answer to life, the universe - but what does it mean? Forty-two, the age he never passed So many questions, and no one left to ask What’s the question to the answer? We’ll never know

   The autopsy comes back in July Clinical words for how and why Bruises on his chest, his back, his arms, his legs Extensive contusions, but nobody begs The question that’s obvious: who put them there? Police say squad car, but do we believe? Where? Alcohol in the system, bottles on the floor Medical history noted, but there’s so much more

   Forty-two, the answer to everything The answer to life, the universe - but what does it mean? Forty-two, the age he never passed So many questions, and no one left to ask What’s the question to the answer? We’ll never know

   Asperger’s documented, psychological strain Recent breakup, eviction coming, pouring rain The tweets alleged abuse but they’re gone now too Account deleted, December twenty-nine, right on cue Friends had called for wellness, police came to check But nothing could prevent the wreck

   We got two narratives, pick which one you trust The police report’s official, but is it just? Ian’s tweets paint different, allegations raw But dead men can’t testify, dead men can’t draw The full picture that the living left behind The blog post never written, the truth we’ll never find Forty-two years on this earth, then gone The answer without the question, the silence of the dawn

   Forty-two The answer to life The universe And everything But what was the question, Ian? What was the question?

9. Fork

   When a parent process dies, the child keeps running That’s the way the code works, no point in shunning The truth of what he built, it’s bigger than one man Deb-Ian still deploys, still follows the plan From a dorm room manifesto to the space station Running on the I.S.S., that’s the foundation More than a thousand developers carrying the torch The project didn’t die, it just spawned a fork

   Fork, fork, the code lives on The coder’s gone but the project carries on Fork, fork, the legacy remains Running on a million machines, through losses and gains When the parent terminates, the children survive Deb-Ian’s still alive

   Ubuntu took the base and made it mainstream Two-thousand-four, fulfilling the dream Every apt-get install echoes what he made The social contract’s still the gold standard of the trade “Deb-Ian will remain one hundred percent free” Those words still binding, binding you and me He wrote himself out of his own story line But the principles he set keep running just fine

   Fork, fork, the code lives on The coder’s gone but the project carries on Fork, fork, the legacy remains Running on a million machines, through losses and gains When the parent terminates, the children survive Deb-Ian’s still alive

   in-memoriam-ian at deb-ian dot org The condolences flowed in from every corner of the world From embedded systems to the enterprise rack His vision pushed forward, there’s no looking back The spiral keeps spinning, the packages install One man’s gone, but he gave us all

   Every server boot is a small resurrection Every dependency resolved, a reconnection To a kid at Purdue who believed software should be free Who named his love in code for eternity The tragedy don’t erase the triumph of the work The pain don’t diminish what he left in the dirt Seeds planted in source, they keep on growing The river keeps flowing, the wind keeps blowing

   Deb plus Ian Still running Still forking Still free From the manifesto to the legacy The code outlives the coder But we remember the name Deb plus Ian Deb-Ian