Two days ago, tech streamer and host of Code Therapy René Rebe was streaming one of many T2 Linux (his own custom distribution) development sessions from his office in Germany when he abruptly had to remove his microphone and walk off camera due to the arrival of police officers. The officers subsequently cuffed him and took him to the station for an hour of questioning, a span of time during which the stream continued to run until he made it back.
René Rebe and fans of his work can only guess what motivated this incident. Unfortunately, the police seemingly have no idea who did it and acted based on a tip sent with an email. Finding the perpetrators could take a while, and options will be fairly limited if they don’t also live in Germany.
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For those unfamiliar with René’s body of work, let’s get you caught up. Per his official About page, he’s been contributing to Linux since as early as 1998 and started his own T2 SD3 Embedded Linux distribution in 2004, as well. Since then, his GitHub page has ballooned to nineteen public repositories, and he’s known throughout the FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) community as a contributor to numerous major projects.
Linux, FOSS, and other such communities are compelled by little-to-no profit motive, so in essence, René has been providing unpaid software development for the greater good for the past two decades.
Speculation is still abound as to who did this. Thirty minutes before the stream was interrupted, René did have to ban an angry troll, whom he mentions in a YouTube comment as one possible perpetrator. Others think someone from the Rust (programming language, not video game) development community was responsible due to how critical René has been of that project, but those claims are entirely unsubstantiated.
Fortunately, René Rebe and his loved ones are safe in the aftermath of this incident, though they likely won’t feel totally safe for quite some time.
