John C Dvorak passed away on 20 July. He was eighty years old. A few months ago he had major heart surgery, but it was still a shock he died.
He had a long career in writing and broadcasting and podcasting about digital technology. I mostly know him from The No Agenda Show. Some years ago I also subscribed to the DH Unplugged podcast, which is almost as long-running as No Agenda. He did many more podcasts, television, radio, and wrote books and many columns. E.g. he wrote for PC Magazine for decades but was unceremoniously fired in 2018 for writing negatively about 5G. Advertisers, you know... He had strong opinions, and was not afraid of stating them.
When I read some of the obituaries and comments, I realised that many remember him from writing and broadcasting long before podcasting existed. I was a Mac guy back then, so any computer mags I bought would have been about Macintosh. I first heard (of) him when I started listen to No Agenda. It must have been more than ten years ago. I learnt about its existence from the Linux Outlaws podcast. Which aired its last episode in 2014! Goodness how time flies...
No Agenda is the podcast I have been listening to the longest. In the past few months I have kept up less with it, and with other things too. So I learnt about it yesterday when the latest NAS episode came up in my feed. "In the Mourning", which sounded ominous, so I started listen to it. Have not finished it yet. It is touching. I was shocked he had died so suddenly, even if it apparently was peaceful. You hear often that people die, that you do not know personally but you have listened to them or their music, or read them. It can be sad or at least feel like an end of an era, especially if you get to be a bit older like I am. No less so when you have your own health issues. I did not know JCD at all, and I certainly do not remember him from my childhood or youth, but I was still a bit shocked and also sad. He did have a loving family and a long very productive life, but still very active, so it feels rather abrupt.
I think part of my feeling of (minor) shock and real sadness was that I lost close family members these past few years, and also have some living relatives I care about (considerably older than JCD).
JCD had a video show called Cranky Geeks, which I have not really watched, and he was sometimes mentioned as a "curmudgeon", which I suppose he was at times. I wouldn't mind call myself a curmudgeon at times. 🙂 He could sound grumpy at times, but to me he still had a humorous and full of life way of talking. Lot of energy despite his age. I guess the "cranky" was also a bit of media persona? A real duffer, in the best sense of the word 😉
Requiescat in pace, John C. Dvorak