I was shocked today to read of the passing of Anthony Rumble, a true pioneer of Linux, the Internet, and electronic commerce in Australia.

I first met him at an APANA BBQ in 1994, where he handed me my first Linux distribution: Slackware 1.1.2, with the trusty 0.99pl15 kernel.

I subsequently worked with Anthony on the NetXpress project, which he designed, and which was one of the first significant deployments of Linux in a mission critical role in Australia. His work went a long way to proving the capability and viability of Linux for larger businesses—something which is taken for granted today, but certainly was not at the time. And without his efforts to provide public access Internet in Australia in the early 1990s, I likely would have not even used the Internet until several years later when commercial ISPs started offering retail access. I suspect there are many today in the Linux and Internet communities who were similarly influenced and assisted by Anthony.

While I had not seen Anthony for some time, we were good friends and this is very sad news.