RIP Dave Täht (Internet engineer)

[Rainmaker]

I was saddened tonight to read that Dave Täht (he Internet engineer, coder, and all-round old-school hacker genius who contributed to - and heavily influenced - bufferbloat mitigation across the Internet) died recently aged 59. He passed away on April Fool's Day, which in a way was quite fitting for him!

Dave was instrumental in developing CAKE, FQ-CoDel, *WRT and others; and more recently he 'fixed' bufferbloat and latency issues within Starlink to the benefit of many around the globe. Dave loved to help people, and gave his time sharing a lot of knowledge and stories on some of the threads on here - to all of our benefit. It was only the other day I was thinking I hadn't heard from him in a little while. I was lucky he kept in touch with me via emal and shot the breeze occasionally. He was a genuinely nice guy with a whole lot of stories. I'll pour one out for you, Dave. Goodnight, God bless, and don't let the Vogons bite. RIP dude.

In loving memory of Dave Täht

04/01/2025It is with heavy hearts that we report that Dave Täht has passed away.Dave was an amazing person, whose work on FQ-CoDel, CAKE, and LibreQoS changed the internet forever. He and Jim Getty…

libreqos.io

Dave Taht, Who Sped Up Networks More Than You'll Ever Know, Has Died

You may never have heard of him or his work with the Bufferbloat Project, but you use it daily.

thenewstack.io

 

[whitecrook]

RIP Dave.

 

[ChrisD.]

Not all heroes wear capes. RIP Dave.

 

[Ad_Augendae]

Very Sad, rest well.

 

[MrRockliffe]

Didn’t he have a profile on here once upon a time?

RIP though, I remember him adding lots of value wherever it was I used to engage with him online.

 

[ChrisD.]

Didn’t he have a profile on here once upon a time?

RIP though, I remember him adding lots of value wherever it was I used to engage with him online.

He did, in the VM thread IIRC.

 

[Zefan]

RIP @Dave Taht

 

[GregI]

RIP

Even after his fantastic work in bufferbloat mitigation I also believe he was working on developing multi core support for CAKE.

 

[Avalon]

Dave was one of those rare people who's history is equally littered with momentous achievements that literally benefit billions of people he will never know, and genuine moments of 'He did what?!' An amazingly talented, giving and unique individual who we are diminished without

 

[John24]

I didn't know of Dave until now. What a fella, thank you Dave Täht. Rest in peace.

 

[Gray2233]

That's such a damned shame, 59 is no age at all.

 

[Rainmaker]

OP updated with an additional obituary.

I was re-reading Dave and my correspondence today, and I was sad to spot something I'd missed originally. In a long and varied exchange (as was usual for us), somewhere around the middle he'd slipped in a request that I draft a document/post/page introducing bufferbloat and AQM and the available solutions. He said he felt I was a good writer, but he struggled with actually 'using web stuff', ironically. He usually reserved weekends for being online, and lived his life during the week. He said he figured that between my technical writing and his input on the logistical/detail side we could produce something worthwhile together for a younger (primarily British) audience. He has had connections with OFCOM and SamKnows, and wanted to bring them into the mix.

Reading through our exchanges today, there it was - sandwiched in between jokes about Vogons, waxing about working with Elon Musk/Starlink (my lips are sealed!), Virgin Media and reminiscing about drinking and singing in Bristol. His late English friend from Bristol led many a drinking session back in the day, and that was the reason for him listing 'Bristol' as his location on his OcUK profile, despite his being thoroughly American. None of us are perfect.

I'd missed the offer originally, replying only to several of his other points. He didn't push the matter in future replies, I assume because he figured I wasn't interested in taking up the offer. Now I'll never have that opportunity to work with and learn from him at that level, and that's truly regrettable. Sorry I accidentally glossed over it, Dave! He was such a character; in love with Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, deeply immersed in occult network knowledge and lecturing in universities worldwide- yet superficially charming, direct, disarming and funny. A top bloke, and I thoroughly enjoyed our chats. Forgive my walk down memory lane, but it seemed more appropriate to share than the more superficial and fact-oriented OP.

#FreeDave #DaveIsFreeNow (if you know, you know! haha)