Sophie Brun, Raphel Hertzog & Debian sexual conflicts of interest
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock.
18:00 Tue, 17 Mar 2026
What does "Debian Community" or "Debian Family" really mean? What does diversity really mean?
To answer that, take another look at Galia Mancheva's abuse report about FSFE:
Even after my lawyer warned him to terminate all attempts to communicate with me and send someone else to pick up my work laptop, he came in person to my house, and was very irritated that I was not alone.
What Galia is telling us is that she was dating a man who is not part of the same so-called "Community".
The male overlords in these groups think that if they give a job to a woman, the woman has to make herself available to the community twenty four hours per day, seven days per week, in every way. That is the only way somebody can be completely brainwashed. If women maintain relationships outside the so-called "community" then they are less vulnerable to the cult-like brainwashing techniques.
Contrast the story of Galia Mancheva with the story of Sophie Brun. In February 2021, Raphael Hertzog submitted the following comments in his advocacy for Sophie to become a Debian Developer:
I have personally worked with Sophie Brun <sophie@freexian.com> (key 3B21B8E68AE5C16F87F5322D5792783B206FEE30) for the last 6 years.
[ ... snip ... ]
I believe her (long-term) track record of contributions shows by itself that there's no point to start as Debian Maintainer, in particular since the work she's doing requires touching many different packages and introducing new packages to Debian.
I know that Sophie Brun can be trusted to be a full member of Debian, and have unsupervised, unrestricted upload rights, right now.
The onboarding process for Sophie Brun was completed in just four and a half months. It was one of the fastest in living memory.
Raphael Hertzog told us, above, they worked together for six years. Nowhere in the email does he mention that they are husband and wife.
In the 2024 Ada Lovelace Day interview, Sophie tells us the truth:
1. Who are you?
I'm a 44 years old French woman. I'm married and I have 2 sons.
2. How did you get introduced to Debian?
In 2004 my boyfriend (now my husband) installed Debian on my personal computer to introduce me to Debian. I knew almost nothing about Open Source. During my engineering studies, a professor mentioned the existence of Linux, Red Hat in particular, but without giving any details.
I learnt Debian by using and reading (in advance) The Debian Administrator's Handbook. [ written by her husband too ]
This is why Galia Mancheva did not fit in the FSFE misfits. Her boyfriend was not part of "the community". Sophie Brun is the partner of somebody in "the community" so she is treated like a princess.
3. How long have you been into Debian?
I've been a user since 2004. But I only started contributing to Debian in 2015: I had quit my job and I wanted to work on something more meaningful. That's why I joined my husband in Freexian, his company. Unlike most people I think, I started contributing to Debian for my work. I only became a DD in 2021 under gentle social pressure and when I felt confident enough.
4. Are you using Debian in your daily life? If yes, how?
Of course I use Debian in my professional life for almost all the tasks: from administrative tasks to Debian packaging.
I also use Debian in my personal life. I have very basic needs: Firefox, LibreOffice, GnuCash and Rhythmbox are the main applications I need.
Bad Faith judgment: Raphael Hertzog deceived everybody in the Debian New Maintainer Process
Reading Raphael Hertzog's advocacy for Sophie Brun, the outside observers and people reading it in the future will have the impression that Raphael and Sophie are nothing more than work colleagues.
Yet he very strongly advocates for Sophie to have unrestricted access to the Debian keyring as quickly as possible, without revealing this is a woman who sleeps in his bed every night since 2004 or earlier.
If people knew that key fact about the sexual relationship, they would probably ignore the advocacy written by her husband and put more weight on the advocacies of people outside the Freexian company.
Raphael and Sophie had their first baby in 2009. That was at the onset of the Debian Pregnancy Cluster. They had their second baby in 2013. Her decision to leave her previous job in 2014 and join Freexian appears to be closely related to the arrival of a second baby.
Why are Debian resources used to help some families while screwing other families?
This was not about diversity at all. This was about advancing the economic interests of the Hertzog family.
In the onboarding process she uses the name Sophie Brun. In the Freexian web site she is using the name Sophie Hertzog. On her LinkedIn profile she is using the name Sophie Hertzog Brun.
People looking at the name Sophie Brun on Debian-related web sites do not realise there is a connection to Raphael Hertzog.
More links:
Back to Galia Mancheva's abuse report, she told us:
Matthias was manufacturing the false impression I wasn't doing my work, while at the same time calling and texting my private phone number in obscure hours (such as 5:00AM or 22:00PM) with work orders and topics. Unlike other colleagues, I had a hard time receiving time off for the extra days I worked on, and was prevented from taking any of my annual holidays.
If people are serious about discussing diversity in Debian and other open source software groups then they need to explain why their girlfriends are treated like princesses and women who have a partner outside "the Community" are treated like they are disposable.
Galia Mancheva was not the only woman who raised serious concerns about this culture. My last Outreachy intern Renata D'Avila also received threats like these:
... we are considering requesting a rejection of your application to the bursaries team.
... Sadly, time is short, so we kindly request you to reply to this message as soon as possible, so the bursaries processing can be unblocked.
This blackmail is the stuff of cults. Yet Sophie Brun and Raphael Hertzog have no fears about mixing their children with this culture because they are part of the clique that is immune to exploitation. Here is a photo they published of their kids at DebConf25 in Brest:
When wives and children use the name of Debian on their CV, they are taking credit for the work that all of us did before. Yet other joint authors, including Dr Preining, Linus Torvalds, Dr Richard Stallman (RMS) and I have all had our names removed from the credits or dragged through the mud. The effect is tantamount to plagiarism.
Subject: [Semi-VAC] Now father... Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:56:30 +0100 From: Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org> To: debian-private@lists.debian.org
Hi everybody,
I might be less active in the upcoming weeks since I'm now the proud father of Baptiste (since yesterday). He had some early troubles breathing so he was put in a "reanimation" service but today he can breathe alone and he's fine (as is his mother).
(All my packages are co-maintained so check with them if needed.)
Cheers, -- Raphaël Hertzog
Here is baby two, born shortly before Sophie Brun decided to leave her regular employment and do work-from-home with Freexian.
Subject: Father for a second time Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2013 09:28:06 +0100 From: Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org> To: debian-private@lists.debian.org
Hello,
on wednesday at 02:06 I just got father for a second time. My wife gave birth to Lucas, 3.245kg and 48cm. Everybody is fine.
My first child was already a son. Baptiste is now 3 years old and is curious about Lucas, although we also feel some sort of fear of the announced change... :)
Anyway, you can expect a bit less reactivity from me in the coming days and weeks... I'll still be available but won't be able to dedicate as much time as I used to until I (re-)master the new rhythm with short sleep periods and until I get super-productive in diaper changing. ;-)
Cheers,
PS: This mail is to remain private. -- Raphaël Hertzog ◈ Debian Developer
Get the Debian Administrator's Handbook: → http://debian-handbook.info/get/
Look at similar stories when Tassia brought Thais to three DebConfs. How are they related and why should the rest of us pay for favoritism like this?
Freexian, a company based in France is a direct competitor of my company Software Freedom Institute. Some of the people spreading defamation about my company are paid by Freexian. See Freexian SARL, SIREN 481385649, 7B rue de la Montat 42290 Sorbiers, France. ( OpenStreetMap)
What happens to people who are on the outside of the clique? What happens to the people who are fooled by the promise of transparency? Read the detailed history of the death of Adrian von Bidder-Senn. He died age 32 on the same day as our wedding, precipitating years of conflict in Debianism.
The best way to encourage people to nominate for work-from-home with Debianism elections will be for the existing leader, Andreas Tille, to withdraw all the privacy attacks, settle the lawsuits proactively and ensure the next leader can walk in and find the desk is clean ready to work on productive things.
Don't hold your breath waiting for transparency about these attacks on my family. There is still time to watch my video and contribute to the crowdfunding campaign. █