Ian Jackson

Not to be confused with Ian Murdock.

For the basketball player, see Ian Jackson (basketball).

Ian Jackson is a longtime free software author and Debian developer. Jackson wrote dpkg^[1][2][3] (replacing a more primitive Perl tool with the same name), SAUCE (Software Against Unsolicited Commercial Email), userv and debbugs. He used to maintain the Linux FAQ. He runs chiark.greenend.org.uk, a Linux system which is home to PuTTY among other things.

Jackson has a PhD in Computer Science^[4] from Cambridge University. As of October 2021, he works for the Tor Project.^[5][6] He has previously worked for Citrix^[7][8] for Canonical Ltd.^[9] and nCipher Corporation.^[10]

Jackson became Debian Project Leader in January 1998, before Wichert Akkerman took his place in 1999.^[11][2] Debian GNU/Linux 2.0 (hamm) was released during his term. During that time he was also a vice-president and then president of Software in the Public Interest in 1998 and 1999.

Jackson was a member of the Debian Technical Committee^[12] until November 2014 when he resigned^[13] as a result of controversies around the proposed use of systemd in Debian.^[14]

Additional works

• authbind (1998), an Open-source system utility

References

1. "dpkg/dpkg.git/blob - AUTHORS". anonscm.debian.org. 2010-02-20. Retrieved 2013-05-17.
2. "A Brief History of Debian: Chapter 4 - A Detailed History". Debian. 2013-05-04. Retrieved 2013-05-17.
3. Perens, Bruce (1995-09-05). "redhat packaging system and dpkg". Retrieved 2013-05-17.
4. "Who goes here ? Confidentiality of location through anonymity". chiark.greenend.org.uk. 1998-06-29. Retrieved 2013-05-17.
5. "diziet | Going to work for the Tor Project". diziet.dreamwidth.org. Retrieved 2022-05-20.
6. "Tor Project | Software Developer, Rust". 2021-07-21. Archived from the original on 2021-07-21. Retrieved 2022-05-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
7. Sharwood, Simon. "No, we're not sorry for Xen security SNAFUs says Ian Jackson". theregister.co.uk. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
8. "FOSDEM 2013 - Ian Jackson". fosdem.org. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
9. online, heise (20 January 2014). "Künftiges Init-System der Linux-Distribution Debian: Zwischen Patt und allgemeiner Abstimmung". heise online (in German). Retrieved 18 September 2018.
10. Hertzog, Raphaël; Mas, Roland (2015). The Debian Administrator's Handbook: Debian Jessie From Discovery To Mastery. Freexian. p. 99. ISBN 9791091414012. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
11. "Debian GNU/Linux -- Debian's Organizational Structure (05 December 2000)". Archived from the original on 5 December 2000. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
12. "Debian's Organizational Structure". Retrieved 13 June 2013.
13. Jackson, Ian (19 November 2014). "Resignation". Debian Mailing List. Retrieved 19 November 2014. I am resigning from the Technical Committee with immediate effect. While it is important that the views of the 30-40% of the project who agree with me should continue to be represented on the TC, I myself am clearly too controversial a figure at this point to do so. I should step aside to try to reduce the extent to which conversations about the project's governance are personalised.
14. Gold, Jon (19 November 2014). "Open-source devs vote down anti-systemd measure, sponsor steps down". Network World. Retrieved 18 September 2018.

External links

• Ian's home page

Preceded by Bruce Perens	Debian Project Leader January 1998 – December 1998	Succeeded by Wichert Akkerman