Remembering Seth Nickell [LWN.net]

LWN has received the sad news that Seth Nickell passed away, on April 16, from his father, Eric Nickell:

Many of you knew Seth from his work in the GNOME Usability Project, but his roots in that community trace back to his high school years. As a father of a high school junior, I remember being terrified when he flashed the hard drive of a computer he purchased for himself with this weird "Linux" thing. And I was a bit awed by the college application essay he wrote about open source and Linus Torvalds.

It was his interest in packet radio that drew him into working with the Linux AX.25 HOWTO as a high schooler, and from there to his focus on making the Linux desktop work for everyone.

The family plans to share news of a memorial at a later time. He will be deeply missed.

to post comments

Sad coincidence

Posted Apr 28, 2026 19:15 UTC (Tue) by alison (subscriber, #63752) [Link] (3 responses)

> It was his interest in packet radio that drew him into working with the Linux AX.25 HOWTO as a high schooler,

Earlier this week we learned that 7.1 will remove AX.25: https://lwn.net/Articles/1067785/

Avoiding end-user alienation is, of course, the main reason to retain poorly maintained features. Nonetheless, in these challenging times, it's easy to understand why they must go.

Sad coincidence

Posted Apr 28, 2026 23:56 UTC (Tue) by NightMonkey (subscriber, #23051) [Link] (1 responses)

> Earlier this week we learned that 7.1 will remove AX.25: https://lwn.net/Articles/1067785/

Hmm... There's not a mention of AX.25 on that link that I can find.

Sad coincidence

Posted Apr 29, 2026 0:02 UTC (Wed) by mwoolf (subscriber, #155100) [Link]

It's in the third bullet point in the miscellaneous section.

Sad coincidence

Posted Apr 30, 2026 11:54 UTC (Thu) by N0NB (guest, #3407) [Link]

At least the drivers aren't being deleted. They are being moved to an out-of-tree repository where work can commence and minimal headers remain in-tree for dependent code, at least that is how I understand it.

There have been discussions on the linux-hams mailing list on moving forward. Consensus seems to be that moving this capability to user space is the proper course of action. However, at least two popular user space implementations already exist--LinBPQ and Direwolf. It is unclear how much interest remains for maintaining/updating the kernel ax25 implementation.

It was a good run but I think we need to recognize that the Linux kernel is no longer a niche hobby project, nor has it been for at least a couple of decades.

R.I.P., Seth, though I apologize for not recognizing your name even though I likely read your work in the HOWTO. 73

Sad news :(

Posted Apr 28, 2026 21:24 UTC (Tue) by sramkrishna (subscriber, #72628) [Link]

Seth was such a great individual, highly energetic and really smart. He will be missed.

GNOME is actually usable thanks to Seth et al

Posted Apr 28, 2026 22:55 UTC (Tue) by sdalley (subscriber, #18550) [Link]

Really appreciate Seth and his work! Putting the hard yards into improving the usability of something like the GNOME desktop is a rather thankless but worthy task. I definitely would have given up on GNOME had it not been for that work. Kudos to sramkrishna and the team too. All the very best to Seth's family at this time.

A great loss

Posted Apr 29, 2026 12:35 UTC (Wed) by halfline (subscriber, #31920) [Link]

Seth had a unique perspective on the world that allowed him to grasp problems in a way few could. He un-apologetically saw through the shackles of the status quo to unlock a deeper meaning underneath. He knew how to frame situations and scenarios in non-obvious, creative ways, that when revealed brought refreshing clarity.

He was a pioneer in the GNOME cicle, a trailblazer at a time when we all were fervently impassioned and confident we would take over the world.

His creativity expanded beyond computers, from homemade halloween costumes, to fortissimo singing, to his non-standard lifestyle in general, he was unique and powerful and made an impact whereever he was. In a world surrounded by NPCs, Seth carried more agency and force than almost everyone around him.

The world is a lesser place with this tragic loss.

A young man destined for glory

Posted Apr 29, 2026 13:45 UTC (Wed) by jpeisach (subscriber, #181966) [Link]

From current high school student to former high school student - we are the future generation of open source. Rest in peace, and we will carry the flame.

Tragedy

Posted Apr 29, 2026 16:56 UTC (Wed) by jrb (subscriber, #31610) [Link]

This is such a tragedy. Seth was brilliant, iconoclastic, and fearless. He was involved in so many key decisions during the GNOME 2 transition and changed the direction of that project significantly. He was also wickedly funny and passionate about everything he did, leaving an impact on all who got to know him.

Thinking of his family, and wishing them comfort.

RIP

Posted Apr 29, 2026 22:42 UTC (Wed) by ianloic (subscriber, #54050) [Link]

Seth was an enthusiastic GNOME contributor and then Eazel intern as I was starting to contribute to GNOME and then moved across the world to work for Eazel. We were both young and enthusiastic.

It's been almost a decade since I've seen him. It was always great to catch up.

Coincidentally I think he was momentarily in a dream I had the other night where I was making fun of Stanford students and he was there...

Hawaii friend misses him dearly

Posted May 9, 2026 12:38 UTC (Sat) by Anastasia.hylas (guest, #183714) [Link]

His friend John and I were planning to deploy me to do a wellness check when he learned the bad news. Seth was so special and special to me. He will be missed. Hopefully I can learn memorial information here. I didn't understand what he did with Linux, but I thought it was really cool. I like smart Linux people. I'm so glad he's remembered by all of you here. If there's any way I can stay informed about a memorial, please direct me.