Eric Laffoon

[Paul Brown]

On Tuesday, 2 June 2026 14:51:50 Central European Summer Time Eva 
Brucherseifer wrote:
> Hello together,
> 
> indeed, very sad. I was lately in closer contact with Eric, as he was
> working on KDE again. It seems we had some similar ideas. His wife said, he
> was intensively working on it. Actually we had a closer exchange in June
> planed. So I am still very shocked with these news.
> 
> Lydia suggested to name a release after him. I'd strongly support that!

We can add an in memoriam  at the end of the release announcement. We would 
need a photo and some details about his character and work.

Paul


> 
> Best Regards
> Eva
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Am Freitag, 22. Mai 2026, 21:00:12 Mitteleuropäische Sommerzeit schrieb
> 
> Antonio Larrosa:
> > Hi Andras,
> > 
> > I'm very sad to read that. I didn't talk much with Eric over the years
> > apart from at Akademys but I always thought he was a nice person and it's
> > sad to know that news. He'll be remembered at least by some of us old
> > contributors who were lucky enough to meet him.
> > 
> > I've searched in my photo collection and found a few pictures of him. Let
> > me share at least a couple of them where he's actually with you, just in
> > case you don't have them.
> > From Akademy 2004 in Ludwigsburg:
> > 
> > 
> > And from Akademy 2005, in Málaga:
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > In any case, thanks for letting us know of this sad news.
> > 
> > Greetings,
> > 
> > > Dear fellow members,
> > > 
> > >  I hope it will not bother you to write a few words about a person, who
> > > 
> > > passed
> > > away a few days ago. I only found out today, but as he was someone close
> > > to me
> > > at one point and also very much involved in the KDE project, I felt I
> > > need
> > > to
> > > write a few words about him.
> > > 
> > >   25 years ago I was still trying to find my way in the world and while
> > >   I
> > > 
> > > was
> > > learning Qt and discovered KDE, I was contacted by someone from the USA
> > > who
> > > reported bugs and asked for new features for a small  KDE application I
> > > wrote
> > > at that time.
> > > 
> > >  And that's how it started. He dragged me into another project that he
> > > 
> > > used,
> > > but lacked developers due to disagreement with the original authors.
> > > 
> > >  Eric was very passionate about cats, programming, open source and
> > > 
> > > although
> > > not really a coder, he was a supporter of the open source idea and
> > > especially
> > > of KDE, not only in words, but by putting his hard earned money in it.
> > > 
> > >  For years he supported the development of the Quanta Plus application,
> > > 
> > > came
> > > with ideas for it, participated in the community discussions, was
> > > present
> > > at
> > > several aKademy meetings, also as a speaker. At that point he was a well
> > > known
> > > person in the community.  As life takes you on unknown paths, our
> > > collaboration ended around 2009. I don't contribute much, if at all
> > > nowadays
> > > to the project. He also had big changes in his life over the years and
> > > left
> > > the KDE community too. We only occasionally exchanged mails in the past
> > > years,
> > > I didn't really follow what is going on with him, and I was stunned to
> > > hear
> > > about him passing away.
> > > 
> > >  Eric, without you I would not be here and I would not be the person who
> > >  I
> > > 
> > > am
> > > now. You gave me the opportunity to be a full time open source developer
> > > for
> > > years, this gave me the opportunity to meet an extraordinary community
> > > with
> > > very skilled and nice developers, many of them still being my friend and
> > > my
> > > workmates here at KDAB. Without your support I probably wouldn't work
> > > there, I
> > > wouldn't and couldn't live my life as I do now. You were a supporter, a
> > > mentor, a friend even if we had disagreements. I will never forget you.
> > > 
> > >  Wherever you are I hope you will find some cats and have fun with them!
> > > 
> > > May you rest in peace,
> > > 
> > > András
> > > 
> > > PS: I attach some pictures with him from different KDE gatherings and
> > > some
> > > links...
> > > 
> > > https://dot.kde.org/2003/04/22/people-behind-quanta-plus/
> > > https://dot.kde.org/authors/elaffoon/
> > > https://www.golem.de/0408/33049.html
> > > https://www.facebook.com/groups/284483488422443/permalink/29871217681585
> > > 88
> > > /


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