Linux and its code are made by people, and people are not with us forever. Over the weekend, a brief message on the Linux kernel mailing list reminded everyone of just how much one person can mean to a seemingly gargantuan project like Linux, and how quickly that person can disappear.
Denise Finger, wife of the deceased, wrote to the Linux Wireless list on Friday evening:
This is to notify you that Larry Finger, one of your developers, passed away on June 21st.
LWN.net reckons that Finger, 84, contributed to 94 Linux kernel releases, or 1,464 commits total, at least since kernel 2.6.16 in 2006 (and when the kernel started using git to track changes). Given the sometimes precarious nature of contributing to the kernel, this is on its own an impressive achievement—especially for someone with no formal computer training and who considered himself a scientist.
The deepest of trenches: Linux Wi-Fi in the 2000s
That kind of effort is worth celebrating, regardless. But it's the space that Finger devoted himself to that makes him a notably patient, productive contributor.
Getting Wi-Fi to work on a device running Linux back when Finger started contributing was awful. The chances of your hardware being recognized, activated, and working properly right after install was akin to getting a straight flush in poker. If nobody had gotten around to your wireless chipset yet, you used NDISwrapper, a Windows-interfacing kludge tool that simultaneously made your Linux install less open and yet still painful to install and maintain.
Finger started fixing this with work on Broadcom's BCM43XX drivers. Broadcom provided no code for its gear, so Finger helped reverse-engineer the necessary specs by manually dumping and reading hardware registers. Finger also provided numerous Realtek drivers. Many commenters across blogs and message boards are noting that their systems are still using pieces of Finger's code today.