Fred Fish

For other people named Frederick Fish, see Frederick Fish (disambiguation).
Fred Fish

Fred Fish, Jason Compton, and Dave Haynie in 1995
Born (1952-11-04)November 4, 1952
Died April 20, 2007(2007-04-20) (aged 54)
Known for Fish Disks
Image taken at the first Amiga show in Cologne (Köln). Front row from left to right, Matt Dillon and Fred Fish

Fred Fish (November 4, 1952 – April 20, 2007) was a computer programmer notable for work on the GNU Debugger and his series of Fish disks of freeware for the Amiga. He was a pioneering spirit pervasive in the Amiga community. The Fish Disks (term coined by Perry Kivolowitz at a Jersey Amiga User Group meeting) became the first national rallying point, a sort of early postal system. Fish would get his disks off around the world in time for regional and local user group meetings who in turn duplicated them for local consumption. Typically, only the cost of materials changed hands. The Fish Disk series ran from 1986 to 1994. In it, one can chart the growing sophistication of Amiga software and see the emergence of many software trends.

The Fish Disks were distributed at computer stores and Commodore Amiga enthusiast clubs. Contributors submitted applications and source code and the best of these each month were assembled and released as a diskette. Since the Internet was not yet in popular usage outside military and university circles, this was a primary way for enthusiasts to share work and ideas.[1] He also initiated the "GeekGadgets" project, a GNU standard environment for AmigaOS and BeOS.

Fish worked for Cygnus Solutions in the 1990s before he left for Be Inc. in 1998.[2]

In 1978, he self-published User Survival Guide for TI-58/59 Master Library , which was advertised in enthusiast newsletters covering the TI-59 programmable calculator.

Personal life

Fred Fish was married to Michelle Fish (née Norman) at the time of his death. He previously lived in Phoenix with his wife, until he lived his dream of living aboard at sea. He and his wife lived at sea for two years with their two dogs, Zeus and Thor. Living space was small, and they were cut off from most things.

When they decided their two-year boat crusade was done, they lived Michelle's dream of living in a "cabin" like home. They moved to Idaho.

Fred Fish died at his home in Idaho on Friday April 20, 2007 of a heart attack.

His widow currently lives in Phoenix, running a photography business, Fish Eye Photography.

He had one biological son, Richard, from a previous relationship. He also had two adoptive fraternal twin sons, Matt and Adam, that were a result of a previous relationship of his wife Michelle.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Fish disks, Amiga Stuff.
  2. ↑ Fred Fish at the Wayback Machine (archived December 24, 2008), Green Blog.
  3. ↑ Fred Fish will be missed, GNU gdb mailing list, 25 April 2007.
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