Tell HN: Ralph Giles has died (Xiph.org| Rust@Mozilla | Ghostscript)

It's with much sadness that we announce the passing of our friend and colleague Ralph Giles, or rillian as he was known on IRC.

Ralph began contributing to Xiph.org in 2000 and became a core Ghostscript developer in 2001[1]. Ralph made many contributions to the royalty-free media ecosystem, whether it was as a project lead on Theora, serving as release manager for multiple Xiph libraries or maintaining Xiph infrastructure that has been used across the industry by codec engineers and researchers[2]. He was also the first to ship Rust code in Firefox[3] during his time at Mozilla, which was a major milestone for both the language and Firefox itself.

Ralph was a great contributor, a kind colleague and will be greatly missed.

Official Announcement: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7427730...

[1]: http://www.wizards-of-os.org/archiv/sprecher/g_h/ralph_giles...

[2]: https://media.xiph.org/

[3]: https://medium.com/mozilla-tech/deploying-rust-in-a-large-co...

511 points | by ffworld 3 days ago

30 comments

derf_ 2 days ago
I began contributing to Xiph shortly after Ralph did. He was always thoughtful, always curious, always kind, and his example helped me to become a better version of myself. I wish he was still here to review my patches and untangle the nastier bits of arcana needed to deploy our libraries across a broad ecosystem. I wish he was still here to get tacos with us, and plan world domination. He gave so much to those around him that it does not feel right to complain that he is not around to give us more. I miss him.
skaul 3 days ago
I worked with Ralph when he was at Brave. I fondly remember many long walks in downtown Vancouver with him, getting tea at Matchstick and chatting about Rust and privacy and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. I still can't believe this. Huge loss.
gsmecher 2 days ago
Towards the end of my EE degree in the mid-2000s, I hoodwinked Ralph into dropping by my dingy east-Vancouver rental for a tech demo. I was trying to find a home for my thesis research project, which was a very niche-y DSP algorithm that had only the very faintest relevance to Xiph's mission. I was 100% enthusiasm and 0% practical sense.
Ralph was interested and engaged, and when he turned down the project (absolutely the right call) he was beyond gracious about it. It is rare that you can call someone "classy" and "nerdy" at the same time. Ralph was it.
xiphmont 2 days ago
I'm still mostly without words; I just hear Ralph's voice in my head when I think about his passing. He was a force of warm, kind, friendly enthusiasm. We miss you, rillian.
basilgohar 2 days ago
I am greatly saddened at this news. Ralph, or rillian as I mainly knew him through the Xiph-related IRC channels, was a stalwart "nice guy", always a kind word, a moderating beacon of gentle support and help, and just someone whose presence seemed to make any place a better place. He will be greatly missed.
Seeing the other folks from Xiph commenting here, I can tell that my take on him was not unique. We lost one of the good guys, for sure.
antonok 3 days ago
rillian was also instrumental in helping to integrate Rust into Chromium at Brave. I worked with him for a few years; since getting to know him, I started noticing his handle in the contributors list across a surprisingly diverse range of other open source projects. RIP, Ralph.
eclipticplane 3 days ago
rillian was so very helpful to me as an early engineer. I was trying to leverage Ghostscript libraries to format prescription labels for thermal printers - over serial or usb+serial connectors and using very questionable printers. It wasn't Ghostscript's problem but he was so kind in directing me to the right people to help and even following up to see if my problem was solved.
RIP, Ralph.
nullc 2 days ago
Ralph was one of the kindest and most patient people I ever had the pleasure of working with, online or offline. I wish I'd found more excuses to work with him.
raphlinus 2 days ago
I worked with him at Ghostscript, then we occasionally crossed paths in Rust. He was indeed very kind. Peace.
nubg 3 days ago
RIP
pabs3 21 hours ago
Some accounts and web resources related to Ralph:
https://www.wizards-of-os.org/archiv/sprecher/g_h/ralph_gile... https://thaumas.net/~giles/ https://thaumas.net/~giles/blog/ https://thaumas.net/~giles/2024/hillaria.html https://thaumas.net/~giles/2021/brave-19363/hyphen-char.html https://thaumas.net/keybase.txt https://github.com/rillian https://gist.github.com/rillian/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/rillian/ https://www.flickr.com/people/rillian/ https://hachyderm.io/@rillian https://www.foms-workshop.org/foms2010/uploads/foms2010-gile... https://web.archive.org/web/20160310023413/http://www.advoga... https://web.archive.org/web/\*/https://people.xiph.org/~gile... https://2005.guadec.org/schedule/speakers.html https://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/People#nick_rillian https://wiki.mozilla.org/Standards/emeritus https://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Rillian https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/user_profile?user_id=170965 https://openhub.net/accounts/rillian/ https://keybase.io/rillian https://gravatar.com/rillianmoz https://web.archive.org/web/\*/thaumas.net/\* https://portfolio.debian.net/result?email=giles%40thaumas.ne... https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=giles%40thaumas.ne... https://repology.org/maintainer/giles%40thaumas.net https://crates.io/users/rillian https://lib.rs/~rillian/ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ralph_Giles.jpg https://www.linkedin.com/company/ffmpeg?trk=public_post_resh... https://www.linkedin.com/posts/xiph.org-foundation_its-with-... https://x.com/rillian https://gitlab.gnome.org/rillian https://gitlab.xiph.org/rillian https://salsa.debian.org/rillian https://projects.blender.org/rillian https://medium.com/@rillian https://medium.com/mozilla-tech/deploying-rust-in-a-large-co... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46996490

VivaTechnics 2 days ago

fn main() { let mood = "awful";

    let mut msg = r#"
    We feel super sad.
    Rust in Peace.

    Steel dreams compile to dust,
    Silent threads unwind.
    Memory fades,
    Borrowed time returned.
    "#;

    println!("{}\n{}", mood, msg);
}

arthuredelstein 2 days ago
That is very sad news. I knew Ralph at Brave. He had such a calm, kind presence.
brson 3 days ago
RIP
thevivekshukla 2 days ago
RIP
etyhhgfff 2 days ago
RIP
regenschutz 2 days ago
RIP
indianmouse 2 days ago
RIP
tt_dev 2 days ago
RIP
senorrib 2 days ago
RIP
crest 2 days ago
RIP.
janandonly 2 days ago
RIP
imdsm 2 days ago
RIP
hexagonwin 3 days ago
RIP
cmrx64 2 days ago
RIP
r_lee 2 days ago
RIP
precompute 2 days ago
RIP.
FIGYJ 2 days ago
[dead]
lihaciudaniel2 2 days ago
[dead]
barddoo 2 days ago
F