I have no doubts Dennis Ritchie passing will not have the public repercussion the passing of Steve Jobs had. We live in a society which cares little for why things are the way they are and elects their heroes the men of women in their immediate horizons.
Several hours after the official announcement and Google has yet to change their home page to honor this man memory. Steve Jobs however was there on Google page within minutes. Yet, Dennis Ricthie contributed to modern computing like very few living heroes. A man that is one of the reasons Google has a business, or Microsoft, or Apple. A man behind the reason why some of us got to choose a career path where before there was none. A man that is behind the inspirational moment that led a young developer to create Linux.
Dennis Ritchie is that type of man that history, not us, will never forget. And when the years of excitement have died out and our times are looked upon purely from a documenting and historical perspective, it will be his name and a select others that will be listed among the great creators of our time.
Dennis Ritchie was also not a controversial or polarizing figure. He went about his business of creating modern computing as we know it with the candor of a dedicated father to humanity, and the future he dreamt for us. He never promoted himself above anyone or ever cared for any political or business aspects to his inventions. He would criticize his own creations to a level of raw honesty that could only reveal his genius and his full awareness of boundaries. "UNIX is very simple, it just needs a genius to understand its simplicity.", or "C is quirky, flawed, and an enormous success". That task of taking business or political dividends is for lesser men. And many took it.
No. Dennis Richie is not the type we would see on the news. And his death will go quietly in public opinion as the life he lead. But he's the one that gave me a career. As one of the key figures in the creation of Unix, he contributed to the very creation of the concept of personal computer and built the foundations for all operating systems that followed. With the creation of C he forever changed software development, influencing everything, from games, to client-server applications, down to operating systems themselves, and of course, the vast majority of programming languages that followed. Today a very big part of what modern computing is, we owe it to him. The Jobs, the Gates, the Torvalds or modern times, while worth of praise on their own right, are simply the executors of Dennis Ritchie creations and dreams.
And this is why tears formed on my eyes when I learnt of his death. And why I'm so sad at seeing how unnoticed it is going on the tubes he helped create.
