OpenBSD Journal

Jun-ichiro "itojun" Itoh Hagino

Contributed by dwc on from the ipv6-samurai-hall-of-fame dept.

Jun-ichiro "itojun" Itoh Hagino passed away on October 29, 2007 at the age of 37.

To those in the BSD communities he was simply Itojun, best known in his role as IPv6 KAME project core researcher. Itojun did the vast majority of the work to get IPv6 into the BSD network stacks. He was also instrumental in moving IPv6 forward in all aspects through his participation in IETF protocol design meetings. Itojun was helpful to everyone around him, and dedicated to his work. He believed and worked toward making technology available to everyone. He will be missed, and always remembered.


Night ceremony (tsuya):Nov 6 (Tue) 18:00-19:00
Funeral:Nov 7 (Wed) 11:00-12:00
Place:Rinkai-Saijo, Tokyo, Japan

Itojun's Site

Itojun interviewed at bsdtalk

(Comments are closed)

Comments

  1. By Todd T. Fries (todd) todd@fries.net on http://todd.fries.net/

    Itojun, in true form, helped me become interested in IPv6, and answered many questions I had. His IPv6 advocacy was contagous. He was a good person, I considered him a friend, and I will miss him.

    Comments

    1. By Me (128.107.248.220) on

      And one of his favorite quotes happens to be. RIP!

      http://www.itojun.org/personal.html

      "The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long." (Ridley Scott, "Blade Runner")



  2. By Tobias Weingartner (129.128.29.241) weingart@tepid.org on http://www.tepid.org/

    I knew Itojun through the OpenBSD project, and had the pleasure of meeting with him through the years, enjoying a laugh, or a brew while talking about networking issues. He was always helpful, always there when you needed someone to bounce an idea off of.

    I fondly remember his nanosleep(). May you rest in peace now and enjoy the heavens beyond IPv6, BSD network stacks, and all the other things you were so much a part of.

    Some pictures of Itojun:

    Itojun
    nanosleep()
    With Friends
    Itojun's Remote

    Rest in Peace Itojun.

    -Toby.

  3. By Marc Balmer (213.189.152.34) on

    you teached me address family independent socket programming using getaddrinfo() and getnameinfo(). Thanks, itojun, for that!

  4. By Anonymous Coward (24.89.228.211) on

    What a terrible loss, and a tragedy ... 37 is much, much too young. My sympathy to his family.

  5. By Anonymous Coward (24.89.228.211) on

    I'll also ask the obvious question. What happened?

    Comments

    1. By Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven (82.92.216.8) asmodai@in-nomine.org on http://www.in-nomine.org/

      > I'll also ask the obvious question. What happened?

      I'm asking my contacts in Japan, but apparently even his younger brother knew little more than when the funeral wake and service would be.

      Comments

      1. By Anonymous Coward (124.85.255.204) on

        He'd been ill for quite some time, and was just starting to recover :(

        Comments

        1. By Justin (76.17.198.13) on

          > He'd been ill for quite some time, and was just starting to recover :(

          What a bummer! I didn't know him but I am a fan of the internet of which he did his part in making it what it is today.

          There must be a huge collection on karma debt or something as author Jim Rigney passed away in September of a rare disease he was diagnosed with a while ago.

  6. By Anonymous Coward (24.76.252.238) on

    I didn't know him but have used and read enough of his work for long enough to realize how much of a hero he was. What the hell happened to him??!!
    -Shocked and saddened.

  8. By thib (thib) thib@mi.is on N/A

    A great loss to the BSD and the Internet community at large.
    My sympathy goes out to his friends and family.

  9. By grey (208.80.184.54) on

    :_;

    I remember emailing him after I got a soekris net4521 and I was having trouble bootstrapping it as he was the only other person I could find who was using the same CF media I was. He wrote back with the disk geometry in a flash and got me on my way.

    I only had a chance to meet him briefly @ CanSecWest several years ago, but I can't even believe he's gone now - an amazing person who contributed so much and was able to steer clear from project politics in order to contribute to many codebases for the benefit of all. He earned my respect publicly and personally long ago and I can't believe he's gone.

    :(

  10. By Kiraly Zoltan (86.125.253.236) zoliky@lavabit.com on

    Rest in peace Itojun.

  11. By Andrei GUDIU (andreig) andreig@openbsd-box.org on http://www.openbsd-box.org

    I remember doing some IPV6 stuff and I stumbled upon KAME. Then I looked for his picture... and now.. what do I see... his picture here.. first I was glad to see his picture here.. then I read the text. Sad.
    RIP itojun

  12. By jose (84.253.177.115) on http://monkey.org/~jose/

    i met him at a pacsec event in tokyo. his intelligence was humbling, his generosity with it was also humbling, and his grace was also truly humbling. :-/ i never felt so small a man as when i stupidly lost my temper around him.

    indeed a loss.

  14. By jb (jb) on

    I had the pleasure of working on various IPv6 projects for NTT "back in the day." Smartest guy in the room, to say the least.

    It's a great loss for his family, friends, and the greater open source community.

  15. By Anonymous Coward (24.37.242.64) on

    I don't know him personally, but I know of him from a multitude of various sources and from many of his great contributions - I too am curious as to what happened to him.

    I am shocked and very disturbed to hear this sad news and I would like to offer my most sincere condolences to those close to him and especially to his family. If I could pay my respects more or in person, I certainly would!

    I'm sure he was just as much of a great person as he was a great mind!

    Very unfortunate to see him leave us so soon.

  16. By Lengsel (24.80.238.150) on

    I've never heard of him. I have no idea who he is or what he was good at, I am not familiar with anything the put out.

    Comments

    1. By Shane J Pearson (203.20.79.132) on

      > I've never heard of him. I have no idea who he is or what he was good at, I am not familiar with anything the put out.

      Google him.

      Thank you for all your hard work itojun. I am very sad to hear this.

      Comments

    2. By Anonymous Coward (147.249.180.21) on

      > I've never heard of him. I have no idea who he is or what he was good at, I am not familiar with anything the[sic] put out.

      then don't post.

      Comments

      1. By jose (68.40.197.82) http://monkey.org/~jose/ on

        > > I've never heard of him. I have no idea who he is or what he was good at, I am not familiar with anything the[sic] put out.
        >
        > then don't post.
        >

        while itojun's contributions to BSD were wide (pun intended) and far, he was never one to force his name to the front. it's not unreasonable for someone to not be familiar with his name. asking about him is a good thing, it helps spread the word about his work and his personality, maybe someone will pick up the torch.

        quit being so damned negative to people who ask simple, honest questions.

        Comments

        1. By Anonymous Coward (58.104.176.72) on

          where is the question? i didn't see it as a question and it seems most people haven't as well

    3. By Anonymous Coward (124.85.255.204) on

      Put it this way: he was the only person to have commit rights to FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and Darwin.

  17. By mcbride (2001:240:688:98::1) mcbride@openbsd.org on

    This is very sad news.

    Itojun was patience with my modifications to OpenBSD's IPv6 code and my IPv6 parsing bugs in PF were very humbling; for Itojun it was never about being right, it was about doing the right thing. We've lost both an outstanding technical hacker and a passionate advocate for sanity in the standards process.

    However, Itojun's passion was not limited to IPv6 - he often said that he was a geek about everything, and it's true: his interest in music, books, movies, food and culture was amazing (and well documented for the past 12 years on his blog). Tokyo, and the world, is a less interesting place without him.

    More photos of Itojun

  18. By Adrian Close (203.11.81.235) adrian-undeadly@close.wattle.id.au on

    I had the great pleasure to bring Itojun to Australia in 2002 for a conference. I wanted to buy him beer in honour of his coding efforts but he told me he didn't drink. So I laid on the orenji jusu instead and that was just as good.

    Itojun, once again, thanks for all the code. I am in your debt. I will be pleased to drink OJ and configure IPv6 networks in your honour.

  19. By Ray Lai (216.254.116.107) ray@openbsd.org on http://cyth.net/~ray/

    *sigh*

    I never got to meet this great man, I have only exchanged some e-mails with him.

    I wish his family the best and hope that he is happy wherever he is.

    Comments

    1. By Mike Erdely (merdely) merdely@openbsd.org on http://erdelynet.com/

      > *sigh*
      >
      > I never got to meet this great man, I have only exchanged some e-mails
      > with him.
      >
      > I wish his family the best and hope that he is happy wherever he is.

      Same here. I only "interviewed" him for an undeadly article. He was friendly and helpful and I wish I had an opportunity to know him better.

      We're sending his family well wishes from here too.

      :(

      -ME

  20. By Pierre-Yves Ritschard (pyr) pyr@spootnik.org on http://spootnik.org

    My thoughts go out to his close friends and family.
    Rest in Peace Itojun.

  21. By Otto Moerbeek (otto) otto@drijf.net on http://www.drijf.net

    I never met him in person, but exchanged emails with home and talked with him on icb. His thinking was lightning fast, his attitude friendly and helpful. He described himself as a samurai, and really tried to live up to that high standard.

    It is a big loss for OpenBSD, and the community at large.

  22. By Timo Schoeler (eclipser) timo@riscworks.net on http://riscworks.net

    I never met you, but we had some email exchange half an aeon ago (we were talking about some embedded BSD stuff).

    You left way too early. Rest in peace, Itojun.

  23. By Lubomir Kundrak (89.102.7.129) lkundrak@redhat.com on http://skosi.org/~lkundrak/

    This is just sad, sad, sad :(
    Rest in peace, itojun!

  24. By Tom Van Looy (81.83.46.237) tom@ctors.net on

    I visited ipv6samurais.com and saw his IPv6 movies on youtube. It's sad, 37 is too young. Also very sad is this http://ipv6samurais.com/ipv6samurais/openbsd-audit/

    But for sure, he will never be forgotten. Much respect.

    Comments

    1. By condor (condor) on

      > I visited ipv6samurais.com and saw his IPv6 movies on youtube. It's sad, 37 is too young. Also very sad is this http://ipv6samurais.com/ipv6samurais/openbsd-audit/
      >
      > But for sure, he will never be forgotten. Much respect.

      Looks like there's much to do.

      Comments

      1. By Anonymous Coward (2001:6f8:900:818::2) on

        > > I visited ipv6samurais.com and saw his IPv6 movies on youtube. It's sad, 37 is too young. Also very sad is this http://ipv6samurais.com/ipv6samurais/openbsd-audit/
        > >
        > > But for sure, he will never be forgotten. Much respect.
        >
        > Looks like there's much to do.

        Looks like we have two condors.

  25. By Adrian (217.136.61.197) on

    I don't know him, I've never heard of him but when i read all the replies, i can only say:
    You meant a lot to a lot of people, you'll be missed and i give your family and friends my condolences.

    May you rest in peace.

    Comments

    1. By Anonymous Coward (81.83.46.237) on

      http://undeadly.org/cgi?action=search&mode=&thres=&query=itojun

  26. By oga (155.198.68.11) on

    Damn!

    RIP, mate.

  27. By mico (206.248.158.110) on

    This is quite the tragedy. RIP Itojun.

  28. By henning (213.39.202.47) henning@openbsd on

    I'm totally shocked and don't really have words.
    itojun was a good friend. I miss him.

  29. By Anonymous Coward (194.237.150.171) on

    Shocked and sad.
    sleep well, friend.

  30. By Igor Sobrado (sobrado) sobrado@ on

    It is very sad that Itojun is dead now. He was an excellent and kindly developer, not only a member of OpenBSD but also a contributor on a lot of other important software projects (including most BSDs). He was a member of the KAME project core team too; in fact, his more notable contributions are to the IPv6 stack on the BSD operating systems. I knew about his work on IPv6 on NetBSD some years ago, and followed his contributions with a very high interest since then.

    I am really socked about these very bad news; we had been working by email on an Internet-Draft he was writing last weekend. It is difficult to say how I feel right now.

    We will certainly miss Itojun.

    Comments

    1. By Albert Manfredi (130.76.96.19) albert.e.manfredi@boeing.com on

      Shocked, like everyone else. I knew Itojun from the IPv6 wg. He was reliably thorough and knowledgeable, and way too young to go now. How very sad. He will be remembered, though. His work will certainly live on. Most of us can only wish to have had such an impact on the world.

  31. By Brynet (Brynet) on

    This is just freaky, I visited his site a few days ago.. he was still active.

    Just sad, maybe the next release of OpenBSD can be dedicated to the guy or something?

    Comments

    1. By mike paget (198.23.5.11) on

      > This is just freaky, I visited his site a few days ago.. he was still active.
      >
      > Just sad, maybe the next release of OpenBSD can be dedicated to the guy or something?

      Great idea! his videos show his tremendous character and he will be missed!

  32. By arrigo (2001:16d8:fff0:0:21d:4fff:fe44:b5f8) on http://www.alchemistowl.org/arrigo

    A truly wonderful person: answered my IPv6 questions profoundly and yet politely despite them being to him obviously trivial. Definitely a tragic loss for both IPv6 and BSD.

    May he rest in peace and have enough IP addresses to last him forever.

    Comments

    1. By 炳熙 (155.230.157.159) bh@izb.knu.ac.kr on

      Rest in peace, Itojun.

  33. By PT (201.48.151.226) pttc.crmo@gmail.com on

    Was it some kind of accident? Car, or something like that? I could not find this information.

    Itojun was someone I admired a lot, someone who I always believed deserved to be better known. The internet community (the ones who develope it) as well as the BSD community, will miss him a lot.

  34. By naddy (2001:6f8:124a::6) naddy@openbsd.org on

    Itojun was a supremely competent engineer and a most gracious person. His untimely passing is very sad indeed. Like other people who knew him I was shocked when I learned the news yesterday and I'm still at a loss for words.

  35. By Shunichi Arai (59.159.102.12) on

    A message for his funeral can be sent to the following address.

    message_for_itojun@wide.ad.jp

    ;_;

    Comments

    1. By mcbride (2001:240:688:98::1) mcbride@openbsd.org on

      A message for his funeral can be sent to the following address

      message_for_itojun@wide.ad.jp

      And itojun would have wanted you to send the message over IPv6...

  36. By Shunichi Arai (59.159.102.12) on

    http://www.wide.ad.jp/news/press/20071031-itojun-e.html

  37. By Anonymous Coward (91.5.71.104) on

    Rest in peace, itojun.

  38. By Eivind Eklund (85.164.129.30) on

    Thanks for all you gave us and your gracious life, itojun.

    Eivind.

  40. By giovanni (212.171.135.235) on

    peace and thanks for all

  41. By Chad Gross (cheddar) cmgross@gmail.com on

    I just wanted to express my sympathies to his family and loved ones.

    Rest in peace, Itojun

  42. By Krisna (202.152.172.3) on http://www.infobsd.org

    Thanks to all your great idea & greate contribution to *BSD & IPv6 community & Rest In peace, itoh.

    May God give stength to all his family & friend.

  43. By Kyle Drake (75.168.189.144) kyledrake@gmail.com on

    Itojun, you were an ace and a good friend. We're going to miss you buddy. I'm really sad that I didn't get to see you at AsiaBSDCon, I wish I was able to see you just once more before you moved on.

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