Murdock (above) had recently begun a job with the firm Docker in California. He founded Debian in 1993 and the project has grown to be one of the most successful among open source projects.

He posted a series of disturbing Tweets on Monday afternoon after being arrested by police and died that night. The cause of his death is not known.

The Debian project said: "With a heavy heart Debian mourns the passing of Ian Murdock, stalwart proponent of Free Open Source Software, Father, Son, and the 'ian' in Debian.

"Ian started the Debian project in August of 1993, releasing the first versions of Debian later that same year. Debian would go on to become the world's Universal Operating System, running on everything from embedded devices to the space station.

"Ian's sharp focus was on creating a Distribution and community culture that did the right thing, be it ethically, or technically. Releases went out when they were ready, and the project's staunch stance on Software Freedom are the gold standards in the Free and open source world."

Born in Konstanz, West Germany, Murdock wrote the Debian Manifesto while he was a student at Purdue University in the United States. Debian was named for himself and his girlfriend, Debra, whom he later married. They divorced in 2007.

He led Project Indiana at Sun Microsystems from 2003, an effort to make an open version of Solaris named OpenSolaris. When the company was bought by Oracle, he left.

From 2011 until 2015 he worked for Salesforce Marketing Cloud. At the time of his death he was working for Docker.

His employer said: "With a heavy heart Debian mourns the passing of Ian Murdock, stalwart proponent of Free Open Source Software, Father, Son, and the 'ian' in Debian.

"Ian started the Debian project in August of 1993, releasing the first versions of Debian later that same year. Debian would go on to become the world's Universal Operating System, running on everything from embedded devices to the space station.

"Ian's sharp focus was on creating a Distribution and community culture that did the right thing, be it ethically, or technically. Releases went out when they were ready, and the project's staunch stance on Software Freedom are the gold standards in the Free and Open Source world."