6 ms·

it's sort of self-fulfilling-prophecy to talk about how bad the name tarnishes the project, while simultaneously explaining to everybody your opinion about why

by serf 7y ago

it's sort of self-fulfilling-prophecy to talk about how bad the name tarnishes the project, while simultaneously explaining to everybody your opinion about why the name is bad. anecdote : I asked a young developer near me 'Hey, do you know the Hans Reiser story?'. The reply was 'Who?'. The reply came from someone familiar with the filesystem, and that general line of work. tl;dr : Reiser is just a name. It was recently the name of a 'bad guy', but it hasn't always been, and won't always be. p.s. I've lost data with ReiserFS too. I'm glad I don't have any need for it any longer.

echelon 7y ago
> tl;dr : Reiser is just a name. It was recently the name of a 'bad guy', but it hasn't always been, and won't always be. It's a filesystem created by and named after a murderer. Just because you're fine with it does not mean everybody is.
- 1000units 7y ago
  Caring about the name is neurotic and childish. When it's no longer a filesystem named after a murderer, it will still be a filesystem inspired and created by a murderer. And it'd be equally stupid to refuse to use it on these grounds alone. Those complaining are indulging in the thrill of cheap activism more than engaging their rational mind, and giving into their demands merely enables pointless noise-making at best and at worst conditions (the few-to-no) emotionally unstable people genuinely offended by the name to embrace their fragility at the expense of the project instead of reaching this healthy, antifragile state of mind I inhabit.
  - Stratoscope 7y ago
    You are really insulting your fellow commenters here. If you truly inhabit a healthy, antifragile state of mind, you must realize that many of us are not as enlightened and do have emotional reactions to things like this. It doesn't mean we are inferior, it just means we are human.
    - 1000units 7y ago
      This fragility does not make you a lesser person; I extend my hand to you as an equal, my brother. I hope you do the same when I am misguided or weakened in any manner myself.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
  - hotasice 7y ago
    The Reiser filesystem will continue to be used by those who understand its value, despite its bad reputation within a small niche of people[0]. On a more on-topic point: my experience has led me to believe that the Reiser fs (Reiser4) has a narrow use case only when quick operations (seek/read/write) on an inordinate amount (hundreds of thousands+) of small (<1MB) files is required -- and that high performance is absolutely necesaary. I failed to find any other use in my experiences with it. I was quite surprised when I initially ran out of inodes my first go-around, as well. [0] Really, no one cares that much. Whenever the name comes up in less formal circles, obligatroy low-effort "dead wife" jokes surface, but what usually follows is discussion on the filesystem's merits. The outrage is from a vocal minority that I would deduce aren't in any position where choice of filesystem is of their concern.
haymakel 7y ago
The fact that every single thread here, possibly every single comment, is so far referring to the name of the filesystem, speaks louder to me than your anecdote. (It's very hard, for me at least, to say that in a way that does not come across as snarky, which I don't intend to be.)
- gdy 7y ago
  Selection bias
  - haymakel 7y ago
    I think you might just be trolling, but in case you are not, I do not see how selection bias applies here. I (or anyone else) did not select any comments here. Close, or maybe even actual, 100% of the comments here are about the issue with the name, so unless you want to insinuate that the HN community responding to this is not in any way representative of people who care about filesystems, there is hardly a bias here.
    - gdy 7y ago
      You imply that comments are representative of the attitude towards reiserfs in general population. It seems more likely to me that overly emotional people, regardless of their interest in filesystems, got triggered and wrote a bunch of comments even without clicking the link.
      - haymakel 7y ago
        There is a vastness of comments about the name. They all must be written by trolls.
        gdy 7y ago
        I've said nothing about trolls.
        7y ago
esotericn 7y ago
How long do you want to wait? I don't particularly care about the name, but I was around at the time of the Reiser case, and I'd like to hope that I've got another 20-30 years in me yet.
strainer 7y ago
However the reception of brand names is surely often self fulfilling like that, they don't succeed through robotic reason but through fuzzy associations. The murderers connection to the product is very direct so it seems it wont be forgotten soon. An unconnected product might use the name without being tainted.

by serf 7y ago

echelon 7y ago

> tl;dr : Reiser is just a name. It was recently the name of a 'bad guy', but it hasn't always been, and won't always be. It's a filesystem created by and named after a murderer. Just because you're fine with it does not mean everybody is.

1000units 7y ago
Caring about the name is neurotic and childish. When it's no longer a filesystem named after a murderer, it will still be a filesystem inspired and created by a murderer. And it'd be equally stupid to refuse to use it on these grounds alone. Those complaining are indulging in the thrill of cheap activism more than engaging their rational mind, and giving into their demands merely enables pointless noise-making at best and at worst conditions (the few-to-no) emotionally unstable people genuinely offended by the name to embrace their fragility at the expense of the project instead of reaching this healthy, antifragile state of mind I inhabit.
- Stratoscope 7y ago
  You are really insulting your fellow commenters here. If you truly inhabit a healthy, antifragile state of mind, you must realize that many of us are not as enlightened and do have emotional reactions to things like this. It doesn't mean we are inferior, it just means we are human.
  - 1000units 7y ago
    This fragility does not make you a lesser person; I extend my hand to you as an equal, my brother. I hope you do the same when I am misguided or weakened in any manner myself.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
- hotasice 7y ago
  The Reiser filesystem will continue to be used by those who understand its value, despite its bad reputation within a small niche of people[0]. On a more on-topic point: my experience has led me to believe that the Reiser fs (Reiser4) has a narrow use case only when quick operations (seek/read/write) on an inordinate amount (hundreds of thousands+) of small (<1MB) files is required -- and that high performance is absolutely necesaary. I failed to find any other use in my experiences with it. I was quite surprised when I initially ran out of inodes my first go-around, as well. [0] Really, no one cares that much. Whenever the name comes up in less formal circles, obligatroy low-effort "dead wife" jokes surface, but what usually follows is discussion on the filesystem's merits. The outrage is from a vocal minority that I would deduce aren't in any position where choice of filesystem is of their concern.

haymakel 7y ago

The fact that every single thread here, possibly every single comment, is so far referring to the name of the filesystem, speaks louder to me than your anecdote. (It's very hard, for me at least, to say that in a way that does not come across as snarky, which I don't intend to be.)

gdy 7y ago
Selection bias
- haymakel 7y ago
  I think you might just be trolling, but in case you are not, I do not see how selection bias applies here. I (or anyone else) did not select any comments here. Close, or maybe even actual, 100% of the comments here are about the issue with the name, so unless you want to insinuate that the HN community responding to this is not in any way representative of people who care about filesystems, there is hardly a bias here.
  - gdy 7y ago
    You imply that comments are representative of the attitude towards reiserfs in general population. It seems more likely to me that overly emotional people, regardless of their interest in filesystems, got triggered and wrote a bunch of comments even without clicking the link.
    - haymakel 7y ago
      There is a vastness of comments about the name. They all must be written by trolls.
      - gdy 7y ago
        I've said nothing about trolls.
        7y ago

esotericn 7y ago

How long do you want to wait? I don't particularly care about the name, but I was around at the time of the Reiser case, and I'd like to hope that I've got another 20-30 years in me yet.

strainer 7y ago

However the reception of brand names is surely often self fulfilling like that, they don't succeed through robotic reason but through fuzzy associations. The murderers connection to the product is very direct so it seems it wont be forgotten soon. An unconnected product might use the name without being tainted.