Bonum Certa Men Certa

Sven Luther & Debian forged expulsion after resignation, now with Wind River Software, DebConf24 platinum sponsor

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jul 10, 2024

Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock.

At some point in 2006, Sven Luther wrote an email resigning from Debian. This was shared on the debian-private gossip network, which has gradually been leaked over IPFS.

Subject: PLEASE HELP ...
Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2006 23:46:29 +0100
From: Sven Luther <sven.luther@wanadoo.fr>
To: debian-private@lists.debian.org

Hi all,
This is, probably the last, of my desesperate calls for help.
I will probably be leaving debian fully, because frankly, it is not possible for me to continue working on debian. This is the last chance for me to continue, in some future, but i know many of you will be happy to see me go, and have repeteadly told me so all over.
I asked not much of you, and the repeated mails i sent all over, where a cry for help, to which some replied, but without being able to help all that much in the end, and now, even after all those months, the situation is still the same, or even worse, i have seen not a single sign of good faith from frans and the other engaged in this, and each week that passes, i am further destroyed by them. ....

We see a lot of social engineering attacks in the world of open source software today. The rumors that Sven Luther was expelled are an example of a social engineering attack.

He wanted to resign. That is what he wrote.

In reality, people later admitted that Sven Luther's mother had died. Some of the same people attacked my family and I after my father died.

Looking at the list of DebConf24 sponsors this year, we can see that Wind River has joined as one of three platinum sponsors. That puts Wind River above Google, Microsft, ARM, Ubuntu and many other well known sponsors in the Debian world.

Coincidentally, Wind River appears to be Sven Luther's employer according to LinkedIn. Is it time for the rogue elements of Debian to apologize to the family of Sven Luther, my family and other families impacted by Debian gossip?

Will the platinum sponsorship influence Debian's behavior towards Sven Luther and his family?

Various resignations and deaths, including the Debian Day Volunteer Suicide, occurred immediately after the attacks on Sven Luther and his family. See the chronological history of Debian's harassment and abuse culture.

Will the platinum sponsorship influence Debian's poor behavior towards all those other families dragged into these social engineering games?

Subject: Re: empathy indeed.
Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2008 11:43:20 +0200
From: Julien BLACHE <jblache@debian.org>
To: debian-private@lists.debian.org

Bill Allombert <Bill.Allombert@math.u-bordeaux1.fr> wrote:
[This mail is private and should remain so]
Hi,
> Lack of empathy ? Ahah. Nothing compared to the lack of empathy I have > seen from some others DD, which knowing that Sven has lost his mother in > really painful condition which made him more grumpy than usual, instead > of cheering him up, or at least cutting him some slack, used the > opportunuity to push him to the limit, using whatever small authority > the project give them over him, and then acted to get him removed from > the project (removing developers seems to be the prefered pastime of > some).
I can only second what Bill wrote here.
I'll add that while Sven got expelled for some alleged anti-social behaviour (or whatever you feel like calling it), Frans Pop is still a member of the Project, and is still actively pissing people off with the Project's blessing.
At some point you'll have to realise that Sven only wanted to fix the situation he was in, and was ready to do a lot for that, but then it looks like all Frans wanted was to get rid of him at all costs. Well done.
That makes me sick, to be honest.
Also seeing random unqualified DDs diagnosing one or another pathology to Sven is just unacceptable. Think about what you've written for some time. If you don't see what's wrong, question your social skills.
So, yes, Sven needs help. He also needs time and needs to be let in peace. He doesn't need to see his name used to qualify some "pattern" or other shit like that on our mailing lists.
And we certainly don't need more threads about that.
JB.
-- Julien BLACHE - Debian & GNU/Linux Developer - <jblache@debian.org> Public key available on <http://www.jblache.org> - KeyID: F5D6 5169 GPG Fingerprint : 935A 79F1 C8B3 3521 FD62 7CC7 CD61 4FD7 F5D6 5169

Please see the chronological history of how the Debian harassment and abuse culture evolved.

Sven Luther, Debian, Wind River, Strasbourg, LinkedIn

Please see the chronological history of how the Debian harassment and abuse culture evolved.

Wind River logo

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 10/09/2026: Facebook Unsafe for Kids, Fake Songs (Against Right of Publicity, CG Forgeries Basically) a Growing Problem
Links for the day
Rust is Financially and Technically Controlled by Microsoft. Rust Foundation is a Front for Microsoft's Proprietary Software.
Rust is not and has never been about security
Gemini Links 10/09/2026: "I Don’t Want to Interact With Stochastic Parrots" and "ROOPHLOCH 2026!"
Links for the day
What the British School Closure (BSN Senior School Leidschenveen) Means to EPO Staff
The only European thing about the EPO is the staff
Standing in Solidarity With Matt Mullenweg
I don't trust the people and companies that want Mullenweg out. Neither should you.
Links 10/09/2026: "Smear Campaign Says Anti-Flock Movement Is Chinese Propaganda" and "Flock Employee Calls Cops on Reporter Filming Them"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 09, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, September 09, 2026
IBM's Senior VP of Infrastructure is Out, Silent Layoffs Still Going On
Some people imagine the CEO will also "retire" very soon (and "ahead of time")
Gemini Links 09/09/2026: Mechanical Cameras, "Super App", and Prusa Issues
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 177 Out of 200: Manosphere Without Financial Transparency
It has moreover replaced a female worker with a male
Deadline Tomorrow (10th of September) to Appeal the EPO's Fleecing of Staff (Union to Make Legal Challenges)
Join them. Fight the good fight.
linuxstans.com Died, Then Came Back as Slop (LLM Junk)
Don't make the mistake or the assumption that merely 'dabbling in' or 'experimenting with' LLMs can be forgivable as it is a trust destroyer
Links 09/09/2026: GAFAM Fatalities in Miami International Airport, "Britain’s Health Crisis Is Becoming a Political Crisis"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/09/2026: "Adjective Is Subjective" and Walled Gardens
Links for the day
Plagiarism is Hardly a New Problem, It Predates Mainstream Media Getting Paid to Whitewash It as "Training" or "Hey Hi", Then Conflate Plagiarism With "Intelligence" or Deferred "Value"
"Quantum" isn't new either; it's a 'circle-jerk' for companies without direction, only hype
Links 09/09/2026: Airport 'Down' (Glasgow and Edinburgh), 'Open' 'AI' Losses Rise to Pace of 50 Billion Dollars in Losses Per Year
Links for the day
Unsafe at Any Speed, "Modern" Appliances
Appliances have gotten worse
SLAPP Censorship - Part 176 Out of 200: The Sex-Obsessed Non-Experts
We heard some sexual stories
European Patent Office (EPO): No Transparency and No Paper Trail
The incompetence is that of the management, i.e. sheer incompetence of people who never examined a patent in their entire lifetime
Gemini Links 09/09/2026: Going Out, Smartphone Addiction, Mapping the Geminispace
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 08, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 08, 2026
Linux is Sabotaged by Botspam and Bloat (de Facto Denial of Service Attack in "Intelligence" Clothing After Rust in "Security" Clothing)
Linux is becoming orphaned, devalued and diluted by GAFAM slop
Switzerland No Longer Wants Microsoft's 'Swiss Cheese' (Back Doors)
Switzerland's patience with Microsoft is wearing thin
Debian is Not a Community, Many Debian Developers Work for Large Companies Including GAFAM (US)
"Community" sounds like friendship and amicability
Links 08/09/2026: Slop Companies Attack Some More Sites, Nvidia Bribes 'Linux' Foundation for Some More Openwashing and for Saying Slop is "Secure"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/09/2026: Ultra Introverts, BlackBerry Bold in 2026, and Laughing at LLMs
Links for the day
Microsoft Layoffs in October 2026
Microsoft is a market leader. In NDAs.
Links 08/09/2026: "The Green Revolution Has Failed Africa" and Palantir/Microsoft Harming NHS
Links for the day
Microsoft's Silent Layoffs Are the New Normal at Microsoft
Microsoft has a ton of layoffs all the time, but the media isn't mentioning those as no WARN notices get issued
SLAPP Censorship - Part 175 Out of 200: Implicit and Explicit Coalition Against the UK's SLAPP Industry
SRA recognises the problem
Further Transparency Problems at the EPO
The EPO was never meant to be profitable
Gemini Links 08/09/2026: "Everything Must Go", Announcing Perigee, and Presentations in a Browser
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 07, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, September 07, 2026