Hans Reiser Guilty of First Degree Murder

[Sy Ali]

On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 12:26 PM, Christopher Browne <cbbrowne-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 11:54 AM, Sy Ali <sy1234-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>  >  ... Does one's future actions nullify
>  >  one's previous (or current) achievements?
>
>  It's absolutely possible, although it tends to require doing fairly
>  horrifying things, and tends to involve situations where the evil
>  actions are somewhat tied to the "achievements."

All very good thoughts.  I really liked this one.


>  In the case of ReiserFS, I have a different aversion, namely that the
>  fact that the "mind behind it" is:
>  a) Somewhat unavailable for maintenance, and
>  b) Evidently *somewhat* unstable in character (based on his displays
>  in the trial), and
>  c) Having some *serious* communications challenges,
>  this puts a crimp in the notions that:
>   1.  The filesystem can be supported, and
>   2.  We can have an expectation of its internals being sufficiently
>  widely + deeply understood.

One of the "selling points" of the idea of open source is that it's
possible to pick it up and make it one's own.

Are you arguing that in this case it's an insurmountable problem to
take over reiserfs without the original brain, or that it's simply not
worth the work compared to alternatives to that project?

I mean.. the entire "the lead could get hit by a bus" problem can
happen to any number of key people.  Many really inspired projects
would crumble in no time flat.  I always thought it would be more a
social or organizational person who does all the "cat herding" who
would be the key person.  Does the loss of a kind of deep technical
knowledge also present the same problem?  (when it's a different
person)

If so, isn't that kindof.. a horrifying problem for a number of projects?  =(

I hope that I see way more alternatives to the software I use, so that
there are other things to go to when problem arise.  I'm already
leaning heavily on some obscure programs that I don't expect to ever
see updates for.  Heck, I decided to fund the improvement of a couple
of programs I like a lot.  =)
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