I don’t know if there is anything I can say about Stuart’s departure. To me, Stuart was the human face of Gentoo. He was the first developer to actually talk to me when I was interested in joining the project. He was my mentor who always had the time and patience to explain how things worked, what I did wrong, and what I did right. He did all that without once telling me I was stupid, hackish, or otherwise unworthy of attention. He was always positive, never arrogant. Somehow, a bloke in England whom I have never met managed to make Gentoo more than what is starting to feel like a collection of email and IRC bots hurling insults at one another.

Farewell.