Simon Riggs has died

PostgreSQL contributions and legacy

• Multiple comments highlight Simon Riggs as a “major contributor” to PostgreSQL with core work on: Point-in-Time Recovery, table partitioning, hot standby, synchronous replication, and high-availability/replication features.
• These are described as “huge” features that would be worth billions in a proprietary database, yet are freely available to everyone.
• Several people working in Postgres-related companies say his work effectively enabled their careers and businesses.

Community culture and governance

• PostgreSQL is praised as unusually decentralized: no single company controls direction; decisions are made collectively.
• Commenters stress it is not “design by committee” so much as people building what they or their employers need, which sometimes makes roadmaps fuzzy but avoids corporate capture.
• This model is contrasted positively with databases like Redis, Elastic, MongoDB, and MySQL, though others note MySQL remains viable and has distinct technical advantages in some areas.

Open source, money, and licensing

• Strong nostalgia for an era where people built software “for love, not money,” contrasted with today’s monetization-heavy internet.
• Others argue economic pressure and automation push people to monetize hobbies, and that wanting to get rich is not inherently bad.
• Debates on corporate behavior: criticism of projects that grow as open source then change licenses; counter-argument is that old code remains open and can be forked, though others note the practical difficulty of forking.
• AGPL is discussed: some see it as fine and over-feared; others say it reliably triggers corporate legal red flags and is best avoided in commercial settings.

Aviation accident and risk

• Links to accident video and preliminary reports; discussion centers on a likely botched go-around or bounced landing during touch-and-go practice in a Cirrus SR22.
• Some pilots argue high-performance touch-and-goes increase risk; others say they’re acceptable and widely used for proficiency.
• Broader debate on general aviation risk vs motorcycles and cars, and whether more flight automation and envelope-protection systems help or can themselves introduce new failure modes.

Cultural tangent: restaurant leftovers

• Long subthread on how common “to-go” boxes are in the UK and Europe vs the US.
• Some claim it “almost never” happens in the UK; others from the UK and Europe say it’s uncommon but definitely practiced, especially where takeaway is already offered.
• Arguments cover food waste, class perceptions, portion sizing, and whether take-home culture actually reduces waste.

Personal remembrances

• Many brief tributes from people who met or worked with him: described as professional, kind, patient, and helpful to newcomers.
• Some resolve to contribute to PostgreSQL in his memory; others emphasize the human loss to family, friends, and the broader OSS community.