There has recently been renewed public discussion about the history of aerynOS and the circumstances surrounding Ikey’s departure from the project.
We have deliberately kept the circumstances surrounding that period private, and we intend to continue doing so. We do, however, want to set out what happened from our side, based on the records and discussions from the time.
After 18th April 2025, Ikey stopped communicating with the aerynOS team. At the time, the aerynOS management team consisted of Ikey, ermo and NomadicCore. Initially, we gave Ikey space while trying to establish whether he was okay. As days transitioned to weeks, members of the team made repeated attempts to contact him through the channels available to us. Messages were sent via multiple platforms, and we also asked others who had different ways of contacting him to try.
As the weeks passed without contact, our concern grew. A possible welfare check was discussed openly at the time in the “AerynOS - General” Matrix channel, with ermo in particular considering how this could be done tactfully while respecting Ikey’s privacy. Further attempts were made to contact him in the days before and in the morning on the day of the welfare check.
After three and a half weeks without contact, I conducted a welfare check on 11th May 2025, arriving around 14:30 local time. On the assumption that if something had happened to Ikey, then his in-laws would know about it, I also visited Ikey’s in-laws and explained that his friends and colleagues were concerned because nobody had heard from him. I explained that Ikey already had our contact information and knew how to get in touch with us.
That is what we knew at the time, and those are the steps we took. Our concern was to establish that Ikey was safe. We did not know what had happened to him, or whether or when he would return to aerynOS.
In the weeks that followed, the only indication we received from Ikey was an automated notification from GitHub informing ermo that Ikey had himself assigned ermo as the Account Successor to his GitHub account. No explanation accompanied this, and we received no other communication from Ikey at that time.
Work on the project continued. The remaining team took responsibility for keeping aerynOS operating, recovering access to inaccessible accounts, maintaining services and continuing development. The project could not remain on hold indefinitely while we waited for contact.
Throughout this period, we deliberately kept Ikey’s personal circumstances out of public discussion. We continued to acknowledge his contribution to aerynOS, gave him the benefit of the doubt, and left the possibility of his return open. Project sponsorship also continued to flow directly to him for a period of 5–6 months after his departure.
Our public posts from that time reflect this approach. They focused on the project and its continued development rather than speculation about Ikey or his personal circumstances. Our end of year 2025 retrospective likewise recognised Ikey’s contribution to aerynOS while documenting the project’s continued progress.
Ikey founded aerynOS, and that history is part of the project’s story. Since his departure, the community and team have continued to build on the existing foundations, bringing new ideas, new contributions and new directions to the project while remaining true to its original goals.
There are private matters between individuals which we will keep private. Personal correspondence, financial arrangements, private addresses and other personal matters do not belong in a public discussion.
We recognise that people may have different perspectives on what they believe happened. We are not asking anyone to take sides. We simply want to set out what we knew, what we did, and how aerynOS continued.
aerynOS has continued because of the work of its community and contributors. That is where our attention remains.
We wish Ikey and his family well, and we will continue to focus on building and improving aerynOS and its capabilities going forward.
