Influential developer leaves Debian out of dissatisfaction

An influential developer who has helped develop the Linux distribution Debian for the past eighteen years has withdrawn from participation with immediate effect. The man denounces the way in which the development of the operating system comes about.

The developer, Joey Hess, was responsible for developing programs such as the Debian installer, Alien, and debhelper, among other things. He therefore played an essential role within the Debian community, Phoronix notes.

In a statement posted online, Hess said the project has changed a lot since he started in 1996. He is referring to the Debian constitution, in other words the way in which the project is managed. According to him, it is a ‘toxic’ document that slowly but surely maneuvers Debian into ‘unhealthy’ positions. It is not known which part or parts of the constitution Hess refers to.

Hess says he is stepping down from his job and wishing everyone in the community the best. He says that in the coming days he will make some final adjustments to packages that were not maintained in a team. It is unclear whether Hess will continue to be active within the Linux community.

The Debian community is shocked by Hess’s departure, according to reactions to his statement. Debian is one of the oldest Linux distributions and many distros are based on Debian’s work. The first release of Debian was in 1996, with the release of Debian codenamed Buzz. Last month, version 7.7, also known as Wheezy, was released.