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ReiserFS fading into obscurity as maker leads cops to corpse

arstechnica.com — Linux filesystem developer Hans Reiser has revealed the location of his wife's corpse to law enforcement officials. Meanwhile, development on his namesake filesystem appears to be grinding to a halt.

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  • Kylde, on 07/08/2008, -30/+6dupe - http://digg.com/linux_unix/Convicted_husband_Hans_ ...
    • Dracker, on 07/08/2008, -1/+46Inaccurate too. Reiserfs is not fading into obscurity. It's a killer filesystem.
    • evillawngnome, on 07/08/2008, -0/+6no, the other article is garbage. This is far more informative.
  • sathia, on 07/08/2008, -8/+52I hope they give him a computer anyway
    • drmobutu, on 07/09/2008, -9/+6A Commodore 64, hopefully...
    • claypool2008, on 07/09/2008, -16/+12I hope they don't. He murdered his wife. He should suffer.
      • sathia, on 07/09/2008, -3/+3he does with or without a pc
      • blackjack75, on 07/09/2008, -0/+9I am part of the people that think prison is a solution to take dangerous people out of the society, not means of revenge.
    • Epistaxis, on 07/09/2008, -2/+16At least give him a hard drive.
  • evillawngnome, on 07/08/2008, -12/+89The problem we have now is that once we lock criminals up, they are ONLY a burden on society (license plate production not-withstanding). By allowing this man to continue to program, we could allow him to advance technology and do his time.
    • sirhomer, on 07/08/2008, -17/+60Still that's basically saying you can get away with murder and still do the things you love to do. I don't think that should fly.
      • mizatt, on 07/08/2008, -5/+17They should make him do something painful to keep his computer running
      • daverave999, on 07/08/2008, -9/+41Like: use Windows?
      • tobtoh, on 07/08/2008, -11/+24@mizatt ... like run Vista?
      • Ortheos, on 07/08/2008, -4/+21If what you love to do is constructive and helpful to society, then yes you lucky punk and you should be allowed to do it. Plus you would still be locked up, just with a pc in your cell.
      • zephc, on 07/08/2008, -3/+37Make him be the maintenance programmer for FAT12 and FAT16 support on Windows
      • alexkreuz, on 07/08/2008, -4/+38Give him a PC without Internet.
        That would be torture.
      • idavidtang, on 07/08/2008, -3/+5Like using the computer without a table for a keyboard, mouse, and monitor?
      • KyleGoetz, on 07/08/2008, -9/+9Basically it comes down to a question society must answer: of two mutually exclusive choices, is it more important to punish one person or to benefit society? In this case, they are sort-of mutually exclusive (OK, being in prison will still be punishment for Reiser notwithstanding providing him a computer) and we are presented with that choice.

        Personally, I'd rather one murderer be happy than society miss out on something that is beneficial. This leads us to the question: is Reiser's continued work on ReiserFS more valuable to society than is our punishing Hans Reiser?

        I daren't answer that question, as I'm not informed about how important ReiserFS has been or could be in the future (seeing as how ZFS and Ext3 are still going strong).
      • punkcat, on 07/08/2008, -10/+2he can room with your sister while he works on his filing system, should be fair enough.
      • bratterscain, on 07/08/2008, -9/+1Let him continue to code. If that isn't torture, wtf is? Or run tech support for the Linux noobs. If you ever chat much on IRC or watch certain Linux forums, you know what I'm talking about.
      • mizatt, on 07/09/2008, -2/+15@tobtoh, this was murder, dude. windows millenium
      • apextek, on 07/09/2008, -2/+4Im sure when the prison warden finds out about his special skills he may use him to his benefit.

        reisershankredemption
      • rlbond86, on 07/09/2008, -10/+4Force him to use Ubuntu.
      • FLarsen, on 07/09/2008, -1/+3Get him to power his computer with a stationary bike.
      • MadHarvey, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4They let Hannibal Lector do his drawings...

        ...And I am convinced that movies are exactly like real life.
      • neko, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3I think that if there's any chance whatsoever that he''l ever be released, then his prison time shouldn't be fun. He needs to be punished for his crime.

        However, if he were on a life sentence, and he was going to be isolated from society until his death, you may as well allow him to contribute to software development.
    • StupotAce, on 07/08/2008, -7/+13And why not? Some prisoners love smoking pot and violently attacking people and they still do it. We might as well get something useful out of him. Besides, I'm pretty sure he is the only person capable of completing his FS. He's the Dr. House of file systems.
      • pedepy, on 07/09/2008, -2/+5yea too bad he had to KILL HIS WIFE.

        what the ***** is wrong with you people.
      • clharlem149, on 07/09/2008, -1/+2where do they get pot in prison??
      • inksmithy, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2 clharlem149
        52 minutes ago
        where do they get pot in prison??

        The answer is, directly out of bubba's bum. If they are really lucky, it was transported in a plastic bag.
    • drmobutu, on 07/08/2008, -5/+9Aah, the old B'rer Rabbit stratagem:

      "Your Honor, I'm really sorry about trying to get away with murder, in your court, but I begs of you, please...don't lock me in a little room with nothing but a computer to amuse me, I begs ya..."
    • AnotherJake, on 07/09/2008, -15/+4"By allowing this man to continue to program, we could allow him to advance technology and do his time."

      I'd rather live in the stone age than use technologies developed by convicted murderers.

      It is said that some of those who worship Satan do so because there is no such thing as God. As evidence, they point out that, if there were a god then murderers would be dead, not living inside prison and still sharing their words, and their victims would be alive, not dead inside earth, silenced forever.
      • jonsterling, on 07/09/2008, -1/+2Gee whiz.
      • bman85, on 07/09/2008, -2/+8That's just stupid, the filesystem isn't like evil or something, just because its developed by a murderer doesn't mean that it cant be beneficial.

        As for the rest of all that, it sounds like you have some internal battles to fight yourself... therapy maybe?
      • CrudOMatic, on 07/09/2008, -1/+6From filesystems to God/Satan. WTF?
      • AnotherJake, on 07/09/2008, -3/+2"That's just stupid, the filesystem isn't like evil or something, just because its developed by a murderer doesn't mean that it cant be beneficial."

        I'm not talking about the file system, I'm talking about letting Reiser continue to live and develop and participate in society while Nina is dead. So you're saying I'm stupid for sticking up for someone who's voice has been silence by a murderer?

        Look, I'm not a religious person or anything like that, but it strikes me as being pretty profound when considering a Satanist's argument and looking at how easily people don't seem to give a flying f$ck about the dead person -- they only want their file system. I'm just saying that seems pretty sick and uncivilized, if not immoral.

        You can have the file system. I'll take the stone age is all I'm saying...
      • Metasquares, on 07/09/2008, -1/+8The Internet you are posting this on was developed by the military. You should be disconnecting yourself now.

        Also, if God killed all of the murderers, wouldn't that make Him a murderer as well? How would that work?
      • directrix13, on 07/09/2008, -1/+4@Metasquares:

        if I could digg you up twice I would.

        @AnotherJake:

        You are stupid for assuming that your convictions are correct. Nina is dead. I recognize that and feel really bad for her family. But your comment is still asinine. Two wrongs don't make a right.
    • tylermenezes, on 07/09/2008, -8/+8ReiserFS isn't that great a system. If it was something like NTFS, where development is important to many computers, I'd say yes. However, most Linux distros default to EXT3, and JFS, IMO, has many more benefits than either.
      • CrudOMatic, on 07/09/2008, -20/+6Doesn't matter, NTFS > any Linux FS.

        ACL's anyone?

        I hate primitive RWX / OGW permissions - utter garbage.
      • Feyr, on 07/09/2008, -0/+6linux fs have acls now, have for a number of years
      • rlbond86, on 07/09/2008, -0/+9In ext3, deleted files cannot be recovered, and JFS volumes can't be shrunk. Reiser does both.
      • h0ly, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3What about those metadata features I heard about a long time ago?
        I thought those were pretty inline with the current trend to track every file anywhere they might be (eg: Google desktop)
      • evillawngnome, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1ReiserFS 3 is becoming less and less relevant, but Reiser4 is pretty cutting edge. The issue isn't as simple as "save the current version of the filesystem he's working on!", it's whether he should be allowed to CONTINUE his research and make advancements in filesystems theory for ALL filesystems.
      • Brennan, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1Reiser is still the best choice for something like a squid cache (huge performance benefits in this application over xfs or ext3).
    • illt, on 07/09/2008, -1/+25dugg.

      i agree.

      Varg Vikernes, the metal artist from Norway murdered a band rival. the longest sentence there is something like 21 years, and while he was there he had access to a computer. He made some very interesting (some really good) electronic dark ambient music while serving out his sentence.

      American's love vengeance though (only first world country that still has the death penalty), so i'd imagine most people would digg you down for making such a statement.

      By the way, Norway has extremely low crime rate.
      • lagannt, on 07/09/2008, -2/+1Japan is a third world country?

        Most Americans just view the death penalty as punishment, like serving time.

        In hell.
      • evillawngnome, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2I'd say the low crime rate is more cultural than directly related to the death penalty, but congrats to you and yours on such a safe place. :)
    • zomglolcats, on 07/09/2008, -10/+3It's not like the man is curing cancer. He's a coder of a filesystem. That's hardly noteworthy as a benefit to society.
      • senatorpjt, on 07/09/2008, -2/+5Except that nobody has cured cancer, and the filesystem works.
      • RedGreen1, on 07/09/2008, -1/+1Your joking right? You believe that cancer research has improved peoples lives to a greater extent than his file system.?
      • zomglolcats, on 07/09/2008, -1/+1I hope you're joking that you think his filesystem is more imortant than cancer research. At no one time did I say that cancer research has solved people's problems, but to put this idiot on some holy pedestal because you're some obscure linux geek is retarded. And yes, I have ubuntu installed on my computer.
    • Atomic1fire, on 07/09/2008, -8/+3Orrrr we could.... use capital punishment
      sudo rm- raiser
    • acceleriter, on 07/09/2008, -1/+13They can't let him have a computer. It might have a file in it.
    • flashingcurser, on 07/09/2008, -2/+5I'm kind of OK with him being a burden on society, she could have been my sister or niece. She was definitely someones daughter and someones mother. There will be other people to write file systems, but that woman is never coming back. It would be wrong to give him the opportunity to do it again.

      This is from someone who has used reiserFS since slackware 8. Besides reiserfs 3 is open source, it will be forked.
      • evillawngnome, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2"It would be wrong to give him the opportunity to do it again"
        To craft a completely revolutionary filesystem? I'm not saying he should be released. I think the judge should decide what justice is, and the warden should decide if he has access to a computer. Remember, he's not the only one in prison, and the health of the ALL inmates and all guards must come before one mans research/profession.
    • pedepy, on 07/09/2008, -2/+3*sigh* ..... isnt' this supposed to be OSS anyway ? Just let someone else maintain and develop it from now on ...

      dude killed his freakin wife ..

      buried (and i dont bury often)
      • evillawngnome, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4The software itself is OSS. Hans Reiser's creativity and research potential is unique to Hans Reiser.
    • Kamujin, on 07/09/2008, -1/+2We have pool of 6.5 billion humans to find a replacement from.

      Mankind is better served by putting this murdered in a hole, then by rewarding him.

      Whether its as a deterrent of as simple revenge, this man needs to be punished. I have no moral problem with seeking revenge on murderers.
      • entidi, on 07/09/2008, -1/+26.500.000.000 -
        6.000.000.000 (no computer access) -
        499.000.000 (no development skill) -
        999.000 (no fs interest) -
        1.000 (no time) =
        ---------------------
        0
      • Kamujin, on 07/09/2008, -1/+1@entidi
        If you were right there would be 1 file system.

        In fact, there are dozens.

        Thus... your argument fails.
      • entidi, on 07/10/2008, -1/+1@Kamujin: sorry, my fault:

        ...
        999.000 (no reiserfs interest) -
        ...
  • traxen, on 07/08/2008, -4/+29Just the other day I was in a discussion with a friend and when I told him about what Reiser had done... and asked him about his feelings concerning the case and his face went into freeze mode.
    He then said that he was using ReiserFS on his PC and ... now he wasn't sure at all if he could continue to use it due to the negative vibe that was fusing with the name.

    So just to insure yourself for the future if you have your code in a project ... dont put your name on it if you are gonna screw up later on. You may just murder more than you wanted from the start.
    • illt, on 07/09/2008, -0/+9personally i don't see why someone would get upset for using a murderer's code.

      unless you buy into all that karma crap.
    • cquinnd, on 07/09/2008, -0/+7As long as the code itself was not used in the commision of the murder, then you should consider not placing any further implication on what is otherwise good work on the part of a person who did a very bad thing somewhere else.

      Each and every one of us benefits in some way from the same technology that caused devasation on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but
      we take from that things that we try to use to make the world better.
    • yahoofrom, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2Is he also against nuclear energy?
    • MattBD, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3That's a bit bizarre. I mean, you could argue that you shouldn't use German autobahns, drive a Volkswagen or drink Fanta because they were created by the Nazis.
  • maoglone, on 07/08/2008, -9/+1So, being something of a linux noob, I'm wondering whether the ReiserFS is good. Does that make me a morbid jerk?
    • pcghost, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4Not at all. The Reiser file system kicks ass. I used it exclusively until XFS showed up (faster). But Reiser still has its place, or at least it did. I suppose development is screwed unless someone adopts or forks it.
      • Atomic1fire, on 07/09/2008, -2/+1Somebody should totally change the name to JailBirdFS
        /sarcasm
      • kelvie, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1XFS is faster only when operating with large files. XFS also has an insanely slow unlink and creat (slower than ext3, and much slower than ReiserFS), so a git checkout (to say, switch branches) will take at least twice as long on XFS as it does on Reiser or ext3. It also isn't close to as fast as ReiserFS when dealing with many small (
  • centran, on 07/08/2008, -3/+10meh... I used to use ReiserFS. I liked it but there are other file systems.
    I switched to ext3 for inter-compatibility reasons but there are plenty of options out there.
  • gplpark92, on 07/08/2008, -15/+6he spent his time defragmenting body parts because his hard drive didnt need to be.
    • zephc, on 07/08/2008, -0/+12I'm pretty sure he was fragmenting, not DEfragmenting them.
  • Takuro, on 07/08/2008, -18/+8sudo mv penis ~/*****
    • kertong, on 07/09/2008, -1/+4ln -sf /dev/police /mnt/.backup/lost+found/wife
    • adamthebadam, on 07/09/2008, -1/+1:|
    • TheOther1, on 07/09/2008, -1/+2while [ $pleasure -lt 100 ];
      do
      chown -R `whoami`:`whoami` /cellmate/*****
      mv ~/penis /cellmate/*****;
      rm /cellmate/*****/penis;
      done
      echo "$deity";
  • ufia, on 07/08/2008, -17/+166He caught his wife using NTFS.
  • ginestony, on 07/08/2008, -12/+4He'll hack his way out of prison
  • welliwonder, on 07/08/2008, -10/+3Did she use XP?
  • solarwind24, on 07/08/2008, -4/+67This is sad to hear. ReiserFS is an awesome filesystem that many servers rely on. It's the best FS for a large nuber of small file and does wonders for mail servers especially. OpenSuse even had it as its default FS at one point. It's open source and therefore anyone can "maintain" the code. I really hope someone officially takes up the opportunity. I'd hate to see such an awesome filesystem's development collapse just because of this whole murder distraction.

    I've even heard people on digg call it MurderFS. I mean, the creator murdered his wife. So all of a sudden the filesystem gets a bad name? Thousands of developers have put their time into the filesystem. It deservers anything but the reputation it's getting now.
    • jbmcb, on 07/08/2008, -0/+23Agreed - ReiserFS is a fantastic file system - I've used it on all my Linux boxes since Gentoo merged it into stable years ago. It's noticeably faster when compiling - disk latency seems nonexistent.

      Isn't the group that maintains ReiserFS now pretty much seperated from Hans? I don't think development should stop - it's GPL'd after all. If you don't like the name fork it and call it AwesomeFS or whatever.
    • NecroSexy, on 07/09/2008, -10/+1It's because silly moralists--including some atheists--believe in the fictitious concept of "free will."
      • illt, on 07/09/2008, -1/+3way to throw in an irrelevant philosophical non-falsifiable claim
      • Pixelante, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1What do you have against the whale? Are you a whale-hater? Have you no love for the whale? What has the whale done against you? Heh? HEH?
    • cave, on 07/09/2008, -7/+1" So all of a sudden the filesystem gets a bad name? "

      I see what you did there.
    • Atomic1fire, on 07/09/2008, -6/+3Because the murderers last name was Reiser
      He named the filesystem after himself
      Kind of fitting don't you think
      • cquinnd, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4We do think, and no, it is not fitting.
    • flashingcurser, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1Was standard in slackware for quite some time. I think it was optional in 12+
    • TheWindBlows, on 07/09/2008, -1/+4It should be forked with a new name.
    • bipolarruledout, on 07/09/2008, -1/+2Keep the file system but add a new "feature" that deletes any instance of nina.jpg.

      /I could go on all night!
      //Seriously I do think it's a really good idea.
  • petaganayr, on 07/08/2008, -14/+3Too bad, I thought ReiserFS is a killer FS...hehe no pun intended...hehehehe.
    • tylermenezes, on 07/09/2008, -1/+4If you're going to steal your jokes from Reddit, at least copy and paste. That was terrible. Also, "hehehehe" makes you sound like a pedophile.
    • uppedbyhiggins, on 07/09/2008, -1/+2Yikes, look at the lack of tact on this one.
  • PhireN, on 07/08/2008, -5/+5I have nothing against ReiserFS, but consequentially I'm moving all my files from ReiserFS too JFS right now.

    In low cpu environments (its a Celeron 300mhz) JFS has 3x the speed of ReiserFS (and EXT3, and its 50% faster than EXT2 and XFS)
    • koan, on 07/09/2008, -0/+6What is jfs like when it comes to recovery?

      I use reiserfs all over the place because the recovery from a power outage is excellent. I was using xfs for a while, but ended up with 50% of my files in lost+found with lost filenames. Reiserfs comes through every time.

      Not that I am planning to move from reiser any time soon - but I imagine I will get no choice as it becomes unsupported.
      • claypool2008, on 07/09/2008, -7/+7ReiserFS is the only filesystem that I've ever used that destroyed data when the recovery software was used. I looked for solutions on Usenet at the time. I got some suggestions. Hans himself chimed in and offered to help, for a fee. Every discussion I ever saw him involve himself in led me to a belief that he was an incredible egotist, and not nearly as smart as he believed.

        He had an opportunity to gain positive feedback but took the mercenary route. As a result, I banned ReiserFS from servers I have administered, and have made a point of minimilizing/eliminating support for it in projects I've worked on ever since.

        I'm not the least bit suprised the prick murdered his wife. Given his ego, I'm sure he felt it was his right.

        I hope prison crushes him utterly.
      • JonLatane, on 07/09/2008, -0/+10^Wow dude, that's a strong reaction over a very busy guy not helping you out for free. If you were using it for home use, I hope you understood the "this software comes with no guarantees" part of every OSS license. And if you were using it for a server (which would obviously be the worse situation), I would hope that a server admin would be capable of figuring it out himself. That is, after all, the tradeoff when it comes to free software.

        I'm not trying to say Hans Reiser's some kind of great guy (the courts have already proven that false) but, in spite of your bad experience, his filesystem has been a great contribution to the Open Source world. "I hope prison crushes him utterly" in response to him not taking time out of his life to help your specific problem for *free* seems a bit much to me.
      • PhireN, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1I guess I'll find out when it dies.
      • felderado, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1you were using XFS wrong. read a man page. use proper mkfs parmaters. use proper mount parameters.
    • Drathmere, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4Reiiserfs is not about speed on systems with few files. The reason the article is important, is because it points out that reiser's mathematics background lead him to develop a fs that scales well to millions of files. This is very important in astronomy where gigantic numbers of sky datasets are stored as db indexed files. The mathematics behind the fs are what is important at that point.
  • crestfall, on 07/08/2008, -6/+10Dude's probably thinking, "Well, there's always my legacy in the computer world..."

    FTA~

    "Our postmortem analysis of the ReiserFS mailing list, however, seems to indicate that the project is already beginning to fall apart. Ongoing development has been relocated to kernel.org, but the effort could be doomed to bitrot because developers don't seem particularly interested in taking a stab at maintaining the code. Reiser's chief legacy—his filesystem and the large body of research he has contributed to filesystem theory—could be forgotten because of general lack of interest in keeping it alive."

    Great Justice and clever analogy, FTW
    • timbococ, on 07/09/2008, -1/+11did no one else pick up on all this wordplay? made me chuckle: "the effort could be DOOMED to bitROT, because devs... taking a STAB... large BODY of research... forgotten...LACK OF INTEREST IN KEEPING IT ALIVE
    • h0ly, on 07/09/2008, -1/+5"taking a stab"?
  • phybere, on 07/08/2008, -5/+22It's really a shame to see a mind like his go behind bars.
    • Atomic1fire, on 07/09/2008, -4/+5So he shouldnt be in jail because of the fact that the man is smart enough to make a filesystem?
      If anything the man is a murderer, Intelligence doesn't change that.
      Its like having a leading scientist engage in a shootout and then say he shouldn't get the chair because he is a leading scientist.
    • yellowswan, on 07/09/2008, -0/+8He didn't say that he shouldn't be in jail, he just said that it's a shame to see a mind like his go behind bars. This is ambiguous and could just as easily be construed to be as condemning as your own sentiments, with a little bit more humanity.

      As in – Yes, this is a terrible act that he's committed, utterly unforgivable, and he should certainly be punished. However, it's a damn shame he made this decision to (virtually) ruin his life and future– which were both more blessed and bright than most.

      With that taken under consideration, one can state with certainty that he could have (most likely would have) contributed something good and valuable to the progression of mankind (in programming, as well as not taken the life of another, let alone his wife). As such, it's just a pity and a shame.

      Get it?
    • TheSexyGeek, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4No. It's a shame that a mind like his murdered his ***** wife.
  • bnolsen, on 07/08/2008, -1/+11Reiserfs3 is pretty stable. This is reiserfs4 they're talking about.
    I seriously doubt reiser3 is going anywhere.
    • pedepy, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3too bad Reiser himself wasn't as stable, in the head
  • thenewnoise, on 07/08/2008, -2/+48look at all the features

    http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Comparis ...
    • finanigan, on 07/09/2008, -2/+3That last column is a doozy...
    • Disillusion, on 07/09/2008, -0/+16That was really funny in a morbid way.
    • itsthebrod, on 07/09/2008, -0/+8Hilarious due to the concept. Sad due to the truth.
    • nmnnotmyname, on 07/09/2008, -0/+13Wow...
      This makes me love wikipedia more. Even though its an old revision.
    • solarwind24, on 07/09/2008, -7/+6Whoever did that is really immature... Wikipedia isn't the place for those kinds of jokes...
  • kookbutt, on 07/08/2008, -10/+4At least the makers of Microsoft hasn't murdered anyone and buried their corpse.
    • nmnnotmyname, on 07/09/2008, -0/+5That's what you think...
    • Atomic1fire, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2except this is one file system for Linux (one out of how many?)
      Linux is capable of using more then one...
  • OSuX, on 07/08/2008, -8/+34Did he hide the body in /lost+found/ ?
  • JoaoPe, on 07/08/2008, -12/+1Well, ReiserFS is dead!
  • filmbandit, on 07/08/2008, -2/+16"When Reiser took the stand in his own defense, his implausible claims and erratic behavior in the courtroom largely undermined his efforts to convince the jury that he was innocent."

    i kind of figured it would be the sleeping bag cover stained with his wife's blood, his car with the removed passenger seat, and the books about murder investigations.
  • wilhoitm, on 07/08/2008, -2/+3Wow, one of our own a killer! I guess he did fit the profile even before any of this happened!
  • Charlesbian, on 07/09/2008, -6/+13lock him in a cell with a computer? isnt that what we basically do all day ourselves?

    you guys are letting your love of linux distort your view of this man. he killed his wife. does that make him irredeemable forever? i dont know, im not a psychologist/god. should he be punished to the same extent as someone from a less educated background and lower income? hell yes. Linux is important, but not important enough (at least immediately so) to warrant a man getting special treatment.
    • HaMMeReD, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1He writes good code, he can't hurt society spending the rest of his life writing open source.
    • Aitese, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1If it's just a matter of depriving him of any task that he enjoys how come a lot of prisoners are able to read, play chess, draw, take part in limited crafts, take lessons to gain educational certificates...I'm sure he will have limited access to a computer anyway so I doubt this is an issue. What is to be seen is how much contact with the outside world do prisoners have these days? He can't contribute to the project in isolation.
  • hamobu, on 07/09/2008, -2/+20Someone should adopt the FS and rename it. (Just don't rename it OJFS)
  • nmnnotmyname, on 07/09/2008, -0/+6ReiserFS is a good filesystem still - I hope people aren't stupid enough to believe it makes a difference whether it contains code and concepts by him or not.
    • ilgaz, on 07/09/2008, -1/+1Funny is, the concepts (if they are good) will be used on something like "joeFS" and these people will love that filesystem built on concepts of a killer.
      • HonoredMule, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1You know that filesystem theory *cannot* actually be evil, right?
    • HonoredMule, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2Renaming the project/filesystem would still be a good idea, to disassociate it from the stigma its namesake has introduced, and to present its contributors as valuing humanity over technology (which I should hope is true).
  • thesandbender, on 07/09/2008, -7/+1The man murdered someone and he gets a reduced sentence because he shows them where the body is? This is just wrong on so many levels.

    If he killed anyone, the only choice he should have is between lethal injection and "extra crispy".
    • Metasquares, on 07/09/2008, -0/+5Killing isn't the solution to killing.
      • Atomic1fire, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1Its not the solution to a bad marriage either
  • TsuruchiBrian, on 07/09/2008, -0/+17I think they should just let this guy code his FS from prison. He is already going to jail and will not be able to kill anyone else for a while. Let's allow his 15 years of upcoming boredom be channeled into helping the open source community and the rest world. There is no sense in wasting this guy's talent stamping out license plates just because he killed someone. It's win win.

    If I was going to jail, I'd be willing to maintain anyone's code, much less my own. I'd probably be willing to rewrite Microsoft Office in Fortran just to have something remotely interesting to do.
    • boothin8or, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2I can imagine that code quality goes down drastically when stuck in a concrete cell in a prison.

      ...

      I suppose that explains some things about software companies...
      • TsuruchiBrian, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1Actually I believe the main reason that code quality goes down is mainly bad managers who stifle creativity and fail to recognize incompetence, and companies that make their workspaces look like prison cells don't care about hiring quality managers. It's hard to feel inspired if you think whatever good work you do will just go to waste due to the action or inaction of your manager.

        I personally think that programmers would much rather work in a prison cell if it meant their tasks were more interesting and felt more valued (i.e. their pay was higher). I don't even notice my surroundings when I am working. Of course I would probably notice if a dude sitting next to me wanted to stab me with a knife made from a toothbrush.

        As far as Resier is concerned, he would have no manager. He's the boss still (of his project). He just can't go to happy hour after a big release, and he might get stabbed with a toothbrush. I think coding for him would become much more interesting than everything else in jail.

        I get the most work done when I have few distractions. I got the most work done ever at jury duty, because they had no internet, and working was the most exciting thing to do.
  • Ryan454, on 07/09/2008, -1/+14"developers don't seem particularly interested in taking a stab at maintaining the code"

    haha stab
  • MMaster23, on 07/09/2008, -8/+15a shame .. it was a KILLER filesystem..

    go ahead .. bury me down .. it was lame :p
  • diggenerate, on 07/09/2008, -1/+8does anyone know why he really killed her?
    • senatorpjt, on 07/09/2008, -0/+5Don't you mean unlinked?
    • diggsuxxors, on 07/09/2008, -2/+1Yes. He killed her because he's a sociopath.
    • HonoredMule, on 07/09/2008, -1/+3Well let's see...here are some keywords that have popped up in this discussion.
      - separated, estranged (as in he and his wife were separated)
      - alimony (as in he was failing to make his child support payments)
      - egotist (as in self-absorbed macho-geek)
      - socially inept (as per the last-ditch effort to get an insanity plea, as well as observation of his general behaviour during this whole story)
      - incompetent (the most poorly planned, executed, and covered up murder possible for a well-informed/researched geek)

      All signs point to "Real Life" (tm) total failure/loser. I'd imagine *why* he killed her ties closely into these loser factors.
  • CrudOMatic, on 07/09/2008, -8/+2Good FS, when I used Linux.

    Glad those days are over.
  • fydo, on 07/09/2008, -0/+8A real shame. ReiserFS is pretty awesome.
    I don't see why OpenSUSE or someone (or even the kernel devs) wouldn't just take over the project under a new name. I'd be down with that.
    • diggsuxxors, on 07/09/2008, -2/+3No, it's a real shame that a woman is dead and that two children are orphans. Sometimes I can't believe how little perspective some of you nerds have.
      • evillawngnome, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2i think you need a little perspective yourself: NO ONE IS SAYING HE SHOULDN'T BE PUNISHED. The debate is whether he (or any criminal) should be allowed to contribue, beneficially, to society while serving their time in prison.
      • Metellus, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1Everybody! Only one thing is allowed to be a shame at a time!

        Not to mention that the article focuses on the file system over the murder, so fydo's comment was more on topic.
  • buddyw, on 07/09/2008, -5/+2She locked her files
    suddenly the power fails
    REISER UNSTABLE
  • antoniuk, on 07/09/2008, -14/+2Mother *****! I just installed gentoo using reiser. ***** open source nut jobs. Bill Gates would have been smart enough to hide the body better. Dumb ass
    • MattBD, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3No, Bill Gates would have paid someone else to kill her. He could probably afford to hire an ancient elite order of assassins or something like that. Then hire another order of assassins to kill them afterwards.
  • whitecranberry, on 07/09/2008, -5/+1It's a really well done filesystem. Too bad the guy who wrote it is a complete ***** burnout.
  • Epistaxis, on 07/09/2008, -6/+1This is why you shouldn't name your invention after yourself.
    • aeon2012, on 07/09/2008, -2/+3It's good that we can all still enjoy a glass of OJ
    • senatorpjt, on 07/09/2008, -1/+2Yeah, would Volkswagen still be around if it were called the Hitlermobile?
  • petaganayr, on 07/09/2008, -2/+1Oh, somebody beat me to it already? Damn, you guys are mean.
  • everfresh59, on 07/09/2008, -8/+1LET THE ***** ROT IN JAIL AND HAVE HIS FS RENAMED TO "NINAFS"..... RIP
  • compubomb, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3There have been plenty of crazy murderous geniuses. Use the code, modify the code, do what ever the hell you want with the code, just don't let the mans energy before he killed someone out of what probably was insanity to waste. Remember, one mans trash is someone eases gold.
  • bineteri, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2Hans Reiser was really important as an architect of ReiserFS, I saw a him doing a Google presentation about ReiserFS 4 and you could clearly see that this was HIS file system. I really think it would take an immense amount of time to anyone who would want to take over his work.
  • barrywmartin, on 07/09/2008, -5/+4I think you guys are completely missing the point here. How many of us (males) have lost our children to a corrupt and unjust court system. This happens more often than most of us would care to admit. He just happened to have a rather well known position in our technical world and consciousness. Is he a murderer? Yes. Does he deserve what he got? Yes. Is his body of work diminished because of his actions? For some yes, for others no. The bottom line here may be that this entire tragedy may have been avoided if men who face divorce had more options then bankruptcy and childlessness. Few things can make a man kill, and his children are one of them. Something may not have snapped in his mind or, he may have just played out the programming that nature executes when our personal and genetic survival is threatened. That's my take.
    • diggsuxxors, on 07/09/2008, -2/+1No, the entire tragedy could have been avoided if he DIDN"T KILL HIS WIFE.
    • diggsuxxors, on 07/09/2008, -2/+1My take is that you're a bitter guy who thinks that it's ok to kill your wife as long as she "had it coming". You should seek professional help ASAP.
    • HonoredMule, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1While you bring up some very pertinent and valid points for discussion, they really *aren't* the point of this story (assuming real life ever has any particular driving point). The point is that we are now absolutely certain of his guilt, he will be punished, and justly so, as we are responsible for the damage we unjustly inflict on others regardless of any but the most extreme circumstances (like being truly, clinically insane, in which case we still need to be removed from society for mutual protection). Now the Reiser filesystem is shrouded by the stigma of it's namesake's murderous legacy and floundering as a project. Something should be done about that, because the project is just information, and it is still valuable to society and completely unrelated to the crime. Punish the man--leave him in a prison cell and wipe him from your memory--but keep the project alive and well.

      I do partly agree with you...the automatic demonization of the male character in any social/legal dispute (a trend that permeates all of western society and legal systems especially) causes an endless stream of ridiculous injustices against men who do not deserve a lion's share of the blame, or who love their children dearly, but are not allowed custody and instead pay what is ostensibly "child support" so their ex-wives can /maybe/ hire a baby sitter while cruising night clubs for one-night-stands in expensive clothes and jewelry. It's always good to know that if there's ever a problem of any kind and a woman is involved, my story or rights have already been discounted by public opinion, enforcement officers, courts, and any other person or thing that deigns to take interest or involvement.
    • Atomic1fire, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1does he deserve what he got?
      No he deserves more...
      The fact that he could show he body just means nothing when they already proved he did it...
      15 years is a pansy sentience when it comes to killing someone
      the victim can die but the murderer can not only live, But only spend 15 years in jail
      Not harsh enough
      you may dislike capital punishment but are you blinded to just compensation
      what the man deserves quadruple his current time at the very least if not an eye for an eye
      that being said women can dodge the electric chair all to easily if they want equal rights, Give em equal punishment for crimes
      • HonoredMule, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1Revealing the body means a LOT--it's the only concrete proof, and gives judiciaries, officials, and the general public confidence that we got the right guy and justice is in fact being served.

        100% sure > 99% sure
    • ufee, on 07/10/2008, -0/+1You know, if he really cared so much about his kids, he wouldn't murder their mother.
  • charlietuna, on 07/09/2008, -8/+1/* Okay in a language you can understand:
    */
    while(1){
    printf("He MURDERED his young talented beautiful wife!\n");
    }
  • mycoplasma, on 07/09/2008, -1/+4I have a sudden urge to switch from ext3 to reiserfs merely because I know that it was created by a murderer.

    Does this mean there's something wrong with me?
    • bipolarruledout, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2I don't know but the whole thing is interesting from a physiological perspective especially if development drops off.

      As far as I know Bill Gates has never murdered anyone but you wouldn't know it from slashdot.
  • ilgaz, on 07/09/2008, -0/+7People don't get the idea behind open source and gnu/gpl.
    anyone can takeover project, change its name (if there is need) and keep coding it as long as the source provided.
    Some scientists developed atomic bomb, did the scientific community stop using their theories, formulas?
    • websnarf, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2Let's see if we can't raise the stakes -- if nobody takes it over, I assure you, the NSA will, for their own purposes, and leverage all its advantages while we languish in a JFS/ext3/NTFS universe. Your call.
    • evillawngnome, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1What if Einstein murdered his gal-pal before the bomb was finished?
  • sg1alias, on 07/09/2008, -2/+0Glad to know as I'm moving to San Francisco soon, that he will be out in 15 years
  • JonForTheWin, on 07/09/2008, -9/+4Bitch had it coming.
  • bipolarruledout, on 07/09/2008, -2/+1I tried ReiserFS one time but it murdering my files.
  • blackjack75, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4When people are in prison they are often paid (miserably) to do ***** work for a private contractor. They do packaging and such things, all just to pay for cigarettes.

    Somehow I think if prisoners were to work on open source projects it will be more beneficial for the people in general. Hey, with the time they have you could teach all the prisoners a programming language and have hordes of OSS developers ready to re-enter society when their time is up.

    Prison only makes criminals more criminal if they don't learn something there.

    • MattBD, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4Not a bad idea, I mean there are less distractions in prison. But I dread to think what kind of comments trolls would come up with - Linux is made by jailbirds and so on.
    • tomach, on 07/09/2008, -1/+0yep, i always wanted the os/software i use to be coded by criminals -- just makes a lot more sense in the security side. we should also teach them how to find invulnerabilities in currect software.
      • manishsinha27, on 07/12/2008, -0/+1Thieves and criminals are more clever than policemen. They can become excellent testers..!
    • RyeBrye, on 07/11/2008, -0/+1We can compete with India by having thugz do our codez!
  • binutils, on 07/09/2008, -2/+1I think I'll refer to it as the NinaFS now. I hope he is remembered only for being a murderer. I'd like to see his name fade into obscurity with no recognition of his work to really mess with his vanity.
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