This seems to be typical for obituary threads about political and tech celebrities. Hacker News isn't known for its empathy on the best of days.
Go see what happened when Ian Murdock died, if you want to know how crass this site can really be.
Imagine one of Adrian's family members sitting in a room with every person from this thread, and these comments being directed to them, in person.
Fucksake HN. You're being more classless than usual today.