Stefano Zacchiroli (Zack) & Debian pregnancy cluster
21:30 Sat, 11 Oct 2025
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock.
On 9 July 2016, Stefano Zacchiroli (Zack) sent a message to the super-secret debian-private (leaked) mailing list telling us his partner had given birth to their first child.
His partner is not a Debian Developer. This birth occurred a few years after the peak in the Debian pregnancy cluster. Nonetheless, the event remains significant for a couple of reasons.
Whenever a leader or past leader does something, it is noticed and it fertilises the minds of their followers.
Notice that Zack's email signature includes the line Former Debian Project Leader. In other words, he is still exerting influence within the Debian France cell and beyond.
Subject: [non VAC] T.Z. Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2016 12:07:49 +0200 From: Stefano Zacchiroli <zack@debian.org> To: debian-private@lists.debian.org
Dear fellow Debian-ers, as many of you might have wondered why I've finally missed my first DebConf in 11 years, I'm pleased to inform you that the little Tommaso Zacchiroli --- or T.Z., [insert here joke about babies shifting the TimeZone of their parents] --- was born yesterday. Baby and mom are doing great. Dad hasn't yet realized what has just happened.
I miss you all, so have a drink for me and my (now significantly bigger) family tonight.
Cheers. -- Stefano Zacchiroli . . . . . . . zack@upsilon.cc . . . . o . . . o . o Maître de conférences . . . . . http://upsilon.cc/zack . . . o . . . o o Former Debian Project Leader . . . . . @zacchiro . . . . o o o . . . o . « the first rule of tautology club is the first rule of tautology club »
A few weeks after this, we saw Nicolas Dandrimont telling us that his girlfriend would like to be considered for a paid Outreachy internship.
Attention to the needs of your spouse is a first step towards fatherhood. An internship working from home doing Debian stuff will surely put a smile on her face.
Ever since the peak of the Debian pregnancy cluster between 2011 and 2012, everybody has seen the couples getting their own rooms at DebConf each year. More and more or them are arriving with children. Outreachy, DebConf, Dating, Babies. Is DebConf work or is it play?
Please see more blogs about the Debian pregnancy cluster.
Please see the chronological history of how the Debian harassment and abuse culture evolved. █