Many thanks to the Linux Outlaws for mentioning this on a recent episode of their excellent podcast…

Two weeks ago today the Linux Mint blog announced the passing of Mats Geier, well-known in their forums as “Husse”. The 250-plus comments below the post make for a powerful tribute, the likes of which I’ve not seen anywhere else on the web.

As I’ve only dabbled in Mint myself I never had the pleasure of interacting with Mr. Geier on the forums, but I think I know people like him.

People like Jon Ramvi of Easy Peasy, who spent an evening (off an on) walking me through the security aspects of Linux filesystems on IRC, and gave me the opportunity to test a brand-new login theme for his netbook OS.

People like Adam McDaniel, who spent more than two hours with me on Skype troubleshooting a broadband data connection with Jolicloud and Nokia’s Booklet 3G.

Or the Linux Outlaws themselves (aka Fab and Dan) who tirelessly celebrate the heroes of open source and their feats each and every week.

To the entire Linux community I’m so very grateful for your generosity, your genius and your patience. I’m not so naive to not understand that some of you are on a payroll or have a vested interest in a particular product or service. But together you have done amazing things to keep our computers and Internet open and free. You’ve changed the world, and me. Your noble work will not be forgotten.

Nor will Mats… rest in peace.