9 ms·

Jörg Schilling has died

542 points by stargrave 5y ago

1vuio0pswjnm7 5y ago
RIP schily Uncompromising on software reliability, worthy of respect
Yurashek 5y ago
We (engineers in Sun/Solaris) have couple of opportunities to meet him and discuss with him. He was really unforgettable personality on FOSS scene. Many thanks Joerg for your work and opinions.
ismaildonmez 5y ago
We had our differences, but in the end he was a great developer. May he Rest In Peace.
rnd0 5y ago
I didn't know him, but saw him on at least two different projects. He contributed a hell of a lot (including the first standalone OpenSolaris distro) and seemed like a man of very clear and definate tastes and principles. I'll continue to remember him fondly
ktpsns 5y ago
Oh god, I remember cdrtools. It was such a cool software on the Linux desktop in the 2000s. Converting and Cloning CDs felt simple at Linux where it was notoriously challenging on Windows (I know I know. That's just my impression). Unfortunately I don't know the other projects of Jörg Schilling.
- agumonkey 5y ago
  rip-ping jorg
- solarengineer 5y ago
  He created Schillix, the first opensolaris-based distro, before even Belenix.
dredmorbius 5y ago
Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28826167 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28826167
- c0balt 5y ago
  Not really. Your linked post is referring to a retweet of the announcement by fuz (Robert Klausecker) on twitter (in German), while this thread is linking to his original post in english as email.
  - dredmorbius 5y ago
    Note that "dupe" refers not just to a single link but to a given story. Generally the first submission is given preference, though here HN mods elected to stick with this later submission (there were several others posted within a few hours of each other). I agree that this is a more informative link.
dmw_ng 5y ago
I think many can remember the sheer magic of their first cdrecord run (and the terror of producing a coaster). Instantly recognizable name, really sad news.
- benjamir 5y ago
  For years there was nothing else as dependable as cdrecord for me -- a true gift from a gifted. Sad news.
- markrages 5y ago
  cdrecord first induced me to try Linux in 1997. I had spent $400 on the Sony 2x CD burner with the caddy but Windows wasn't stable enough to reliably burn a disc. cdrecord was free and worth changing operating systems for.
- europat 5y ago
  I remember that magic as well and also that cdrtoools ran very stable - while buffer under-runs often ruined the then expensive CDRs on Windows. RIP and condolences to the family, he was one of the little known IT heroes despite probably millions having used his software.
dredmorbius 5y ago
https://nitter.kavin.rocks/LaF0rge/status/1447471874821304330 https://nitter.kavin.rocks/LaF0rge/status/144747187482130433...
- iso8859-1 5y ago
  if I use Mastodon, is there a way I can re-toot that?
  - dredmorbius 5y ago
    You can share it as a link. There are also a few (one-way) bridge gateways. So ... kind of.
giords 5y ago
RIP Jörg, many probably don't know him, however his work was at the basis of k3b, Brasero and many other software programs that allowed burning CDs in early 2000s. At least that's what I know him for. Linux expanded and thrived thanks to CD copies and the support of CD recorders was often poor. His work surely affected many and he did his part in bringing Linux to where it is today.
- flyinghamster 5y ago
  I've burned many a disc thanks to his tools, and going way back! I never had a coaster that wasn't either defective media or my fault. Thanks, Jörg, for useful tools that have kept on being useful.
- Agingcoder 5y ago
  Indeed - the name did ring a bell when I saw it, and then it all came back when I saw cdrtools at the top of the list (early 2000s in my case as well). Thanks Jorg.
drewg123 5y ago
Such sad news. I remember him from cdrtools. It was amazing because I recall that it ran everywhere in the late 90s. SunOS, Solaris, DEC UNIX, FreeBSD, Linux, etc. That was remarkable for a piece of software that interacted with hardware.
- bombcar 5y ago
  One of the main reasons I started using Linux was to reliably burn CDs, and cdrecord was part of that. The same hardware on Windows was very hard to dedicate enough power to the recording software in the 95/98 era.
- chasil 5y ago
  There was also a Windows port of cdrecord that worked. I remember using it.
  - strenholme 5y ago
    Indeed. I still use the Windows port of CDRtools to burn CDs in Windows; CDs burned with Microsoft’s built in tools can have issues (such as, if I’m not careful, burning with a UDF filesystem which some CD players will not recognize; also the Windows CD burner can have issues burning a CD which is sector-by-sector the maximum size a given CD blank can fit) which are best fixed by using Schilling’s software instead.
mauvehaus 5y ago
I know as well as anybody that he was a man with strong opinions and a willingness to share them, but he also had a willingness to laugh at himself and his work. In the unlikely event that you ever made to the bottom of the cdrecord manpage, this is what you found: Bugs Cdrecord has even more options than ls.
ahartmetz 5y ago
Besides cdrecord, he created several other high quality tools. I especially remember star, a tar with features that made it much better suitable for real-world tape backups than GNU tar. A friend used it to implement a backup system. I think people in the German nerdsphere had an affection for him because he was a fanatical fan of Solaris, which he liked to get into in all kinds of situations, notably in heated comments on heise.de. It was kind of cute to see such an obviously intelligent guy behave like that. Many geeks and nerds have things that they care much more about than would be considered "normal", after all.
- einpoklum 5y ago
  Do you know why those features never got adopted into GNU tar?
  - ahartmetz 5y ago
    I don't. But I think it was something about splitting an archive over multiple tapes and / or modifying such archives.
  - st_goliath 5y ago
    Perhaps not on the surface. GNU tar, for instance, to this day uses the pax header fields introduced by star for storing extended attributes.
h2odragon 5y ago
I had a sparc 2000e, running solaris, with a 1tb disk array built of many 23gb, 8lb monster SCSI disks that had already lived a long life in a TV stations video array. Spread over like a dozen SCSI controller channels. slightly flaky. Many of the things I made that machine do were only possible to me because of Shilling's shared knowledge. Thanks for that. I shall burn a terminator in salute.
jwildeboer 5y ago
I‘ve had my share of flamewars with Jörg, as had many others. But it was always civilised and never went ad hominem. I will miss him. The few times we met in person, we had some good laughs about many things. Tough, but nice guy. Left too soon.
antirez 5y ago
"May his software immortalise him." I wish this was true just a bit. Software goes away with the time almost like no other human artifact.
- rob74 5y ago
  Sad but true, that was also my first thought when reading this sentence. Especially since he is best known for writing CD/DVD recording software. Small anecdote: this March, I have upgraded my desktop PC, and the new motherboard doesn't have a PATA port, so I haven't been able to use my Plextor CD/DVD recorder anymore for a few months. But I haven't really missed it enough to get me to buy a PATA interface card. And even before, I was only using it to rip audio CDs - I can't really remember when I burned my last CD (or was it a DVD?)...
  - alias_neo 5y ago
    I mean, unless it's a particularly special PATA drive, why not get a SATA BD-Writer? I have a USB-3.1 BluRay writer I use for burning 50GB-100GB BDs with family photos/videos (alongside other media). The downside is that buying a portable HDD is significantly cheaper TB for TB but I feel they'll fail quicker, who knows, so I keep copies on both.
    - toyg 5y ago
      > buying a portable HDD is significantly cheaper TB for TB but I feel they'll fail quicker It depends on your usage model. If you "burn" a HDD and store it in a drawer, then pull it back after 15 years, chances are it will work fine - whereas the CD might well have lost a lot of data. It might not be cheaper per TB, though.
      - hulitu 5y ago
        It depends very much on the materials used and the development quality.
      - strenholme 5y ago
kleiba 5y ago
We will of course also remember him for his flames. No kidding. I remember pretty well the cdrecord drama back in the day if only from a distance. Very sad to hear this news. RIP.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
  What was the drama?
  - chasil 5y ago
    This seems like a clear analysis. https://lwn.net/Articles/195167/ https://lwn.net/Articles/195167/
    - strenholme 5y ago
      Hopefully, someone (maybe me) will step up to plate and maintain the Debian fork of CDR tools again, for Schilling’s memory if nothing else (and to fix bugs, such as the issue with post-2027 CDR images [1] which I have already fixed). [1] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=990468 https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=990468
    - cxr 5y ago
      Follow up ("The unending story of cdrtools", 2009): <https://lwn.net/Articles/346540/ https://lwn.net/Articles/346540/>
  - Saint_Genet 5y ago
    Aside form the licence stuff already linked there were also endless flamewars on how to specify devices when invoking his tools. Schilling was a proponent of SCSI-adressing, and pretty much everyone else wanted to use /dev.
Brian_K_White 5y ago
I used star as part of my companies backups for many years. I loved his opinionation.
verytrivial 5y ago
I clearly burned a lot of CD-Rs in my day because I immediately recognised that surname but didn't know why. Condolences to his loved ones.
otherflavors 5y ago
http://schilytools.sourceforge.net/index.php http://schilytools.sourceforge.net/index.php
TheDesolate0 5y ago
A true software hero was lost today. My deepest condolences to the family and friends.
lifeisstillgood 5y ago
I recognise his name as something that flitted by on copyright pages, for tools that made my life easier, better, and for free. And sad though his passing is, it marks something else for me - that a person committed to "improving the world a little" is recognised without having made billions in an IPO or become a media celebrity. Maybe we can all aim a little lower (or higher depending on how you see it) now. Thank you Jorg. Our condolences to your loved ones.
knbknb 5y ago
I think his last posts on Heise.de Forums were from around Sep 18 2021. On heise.de he commented almost daily, on all sorts of topics.
cyberpunk 5y ago
Damn, I remember working with him to bring cdrutils to solaris back in the day, he was quite no-nonsense but we had quite a lot of fun on irc poking around, star was always faster than gnutar too. Will raise a glass to you tonight, friend.
strenholme 5y ago
First of all, compassion and condolences for Schilling’s family. Second of all, I had a very recent positive interaction with him. I recently was in contact with Mr. Schilling to report a bug in CDR tools. Even though he was (looking back) dying, he was very prompt in replying to me and discussing the bug with me over email. However, even though I gave him a fix, he was unable to apply it, probably because of his poor health. Thirdly, there is a really serious bug in CDR tools: It will start creating bad timestamps in 2028. That’s not a typo: 2028 (not 2038). Because of how ISO 9660 filesystems store timestamps (8-bit number, 0 is 1900), on 2038 (1900 + 128), unless the 8-bit number is explicitly made an unsigned number (assumed with other ISO 9660 implementations), there will be issues with timestamps. [1] A full bug report, complete with a bugfix is here: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=990468 https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=990468 A fork of cdrtools with this bug fixed is on GitHub: https://github.com/samboy/iso9660 https://github.com/samboy/iso9660 Again, prayers for Schilling’s family, and he was very professional in his interactions with me, even in his final days. [1] The issue is with how Schilling’s CDR tools calculates timezones; the time zone becomes an invalid number starting in 2028.
- rhabarba 5y ago
  > While it has not been brought to court, some lawyers, include the Free Software Foundation’s legal counsel, feel the CDDL may be incompatible with the GNU General Public License (GPL). Which is irrelevant as the code does not contain any GPL code, right?
  - strenholme 5y ago
    The cdrtools stuff is GPL because Schilling maintained the code after Eric Youngdale [1] stopped working on it. [1] Youngdale at one point was one of the Yggdrasil Linux developers, for people using Linux long enough to remember that long since abandoned distro.
    - rhabarba 5y ago
      Ah! I see. Thank you, I missed this part of the story.
jzb 5y ago
I haven't thought about him in ages, or cdrtools, but I benefited heavily from his software once upon a time. The cdrtools flamewars seem positively quaint these days. Clearly a talented developer and his work definitely was a help in open source catching on.
einpoklum 5y ago
I never interacted with Mr. Schilling, but when I saw the title, I was telling myself: "Jorg Schilling, Jorg Schilling, I know that name for sure" - then I remember: I would see that copyright notice a thousand times waiting on a mkisofs + cdrecord session back when GUI tools weren't quite there yet. In Hebrew they say: חבל עד דאבדין ולא משתכחין (well, technically it's part Aramaic) Rest In Piece and honor for paving important stretches of the road on which the world of software marches on.
DeathArrow 5y ago
His modest homepage: http://cdrtools.sourceforge.net/private/ http://cdrtools.sourceforge.net/private/
dang 5y ago
Related: Profile: Jörg Schilling (2005) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28827572 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28827572
badRNG 5y ago
Isn't this the sort of death that warrants the HN black bar?
anonymous201 5y ago
He was my colleague several years ago, sitting just one door from mine (but not working on the same projects) He had an office with lot of hardware stacking up. I tried a few times to talked with him about new promising techs like Nix and Rust, to push him a bit outside of his boundaries. He did not really cared and derailed the conversation and asked if the Nix shell was POSIX compliant (I think it was more or less the situation, time has passed...). I didn't follow all the drama with regards to the licensing of his code but it was clear that he had strong opinions and it was not easy to change them. He was super specialized in C and Unix and I had a lot of respect that he used the same tech his whole career. You could not ignore him when he was in a room, he had a strong presence. I always saw him joyful. He used to told me some stupid jokes regularly also. My sincere condolences to everybody that will miss him.
pradn 5y ago
It's wonderful to see his OSS work celebrated. One can only hope to be recognized for great work like this at the end of their life. I don't do much open-source work, and most corporate systems I worked on will probably be obsolete by then. Alas! A life comprises many things.
Sharat_Chander 5y ago
RIP Schily
cnst 5y ago
Very nice guy! I will remember him for his CDDL flames and my invitation for him to answer the CDDL/GPL debate over at the brand new SE OSS site right at the launch in 2015, which he gladly accepted. I vaguely recall making this question explicitly for him to answer, seeing that he was already on the site, and me needing a total of 10 QA entries to get an Area51 badge for a follow-through on the launch of the site as a founding member. He didn't disappoint and provided a great answer! He was not shy of having a good argument and defending the position he thought was correct even if such position was extremely unpopular and futile to have and to defend: https://archive.is/4JzAE https://archive.is/4JzAE https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/2094/are-cddl-and-gpl-really-incompatible https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/2094/are-cddl... Very sad to learn he's gone. RIP.
- bombcar 5y ago
  It's unfortunate that we'll probably never get a legal answer to the question from any authority - but it appears that more and more people are considering them to be "compatible enough" - see Ubuntu shipping ZFS in the default image.
  - AceJohnny2 5y ago
    It boils down to being a contractual dispute, and until the stakeholders decide to spent the millions of dollars to battle it in courts, it'll remain an unanswered question. Of course, the difficulty of many GPL projects is in identifying the stakeholders, and getting them to agree on action. The real risk comes from OpenZFS, where the majority of the copyright is held by Oracle (formerly Sun). Oracle is an evil, evil organization in regards to IP, so I can only assume their reason for not taking action is 1) it's not worth their time or 2) they're waiting until a big wealthy organization depends on it before they can spring their trap.
    - lproven 5y ago
      > they're waiting until a big wealthy organization depends on it > before they can spring their trap I don't think they can any more. The principle of laches applies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laches_(equity) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laches_(equity) This is why Microsoft's threats against the Linux desktop in around 2007 failed: the IP that they claimed, the Windows 95 desktop look and feel -- Start menu, taskbar etc. -- is stuff that Microsoft 100% did invent, but 12 years later is... Well, _the Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ was published 42 years ago today, and it still rings true. To quote Chapter 3 of the Guide: "You've had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it's far too late to start making a fuss about it now." ZFS has been included in Ubuntu since 16.04. Oracle has known and has had five years to raise an objection. It has not done so. It is now too late, by the principle of laches. It may try, of course, but the lawsuit should be pretty brief because the defense is right there: why didn't Oracle file a complaint in 2016?
smarks 5y ago
That's very sad. Like many others, I used `cdrecord` and `mkisofs` back in the day. But mainly I remember him for his work on SCCS. That code was AT&T proprietary for a long time, but it was open-sourced as part of OpenSolaris. Schilling made it portable and produced binaries for several platforms, including the Mac. He even gave some conference talks on this topic. By the time he did that work, most projects had already moved onto other version control systems. But there are older, closed-source histories of various projects (such as Java) that are still in SCCS, and I find his tools useful to this day for investigating those histories. Condolences to his family.
jpgvm 5y ago
Fuck cancer. We will miss you schilly. Thanks for all your excellent software. May you code in peace with the *nix gods.

542 points by stargrave 5y ago

RIP schily Uncompromising on software reliability, worthy of respect

We (engineers in Sun/Solaris) have couple of opportunities to meet him and discuss with him. He was really unforgettable personality on FOSS scene. Many thanks Joerg for your work and opinions.

ismaildonmez 5y ago

We had our differences, but in the end he was a great developer. May he Rest In Peace.

rnd0 5y ago

I didn't know him, but saw him on at least two different projects. He contributed a hell of a lot (including the first standalone OpenSolaris distro) and seemed like a man of very clear and definate tastes and principles. I'll continue to remember him fondly

ktpsns 5y ago

Oh god, I remember cdrtools. It was such a cool software on the Linux desktop in the 2000s. Converting and Cloning CDs felt simple at Linux where it was notoriously challenging on Windows (I know I know. That's just my impression). Unfortunately I don't know the other projects of Jörg Schilling.

agumonkey 5y ago
rip-ping jorg
solarengineer 5y ago
He created Schillix, the first opensolaris-based distro, before even Belenix.

dredmorbius 5y ago

Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28826167 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28826167

c0balt 5y ago
Not really. Your linked post is referring to a retweet of the announcement by fuz (Robert Klausecker) on twitter (in German), while this thread is linking to his original post in english as email.
- dredmorbius 5y ago
  Note that "dupe" refers not just to a single link but to a given story. Generally the first submission is given preference, though here HN mods elected to stick with this later submission (there were several others posted within a few hours of each other). I agree that this is a more informative link.

dmw_ng 5y ago

I think many can remember the sheer magic of their first cdrecord run (and the terror of producing a coaster). Instantly recognizable name, really sad news.

benjamir 5y ago
For years there was nothing else as dependable as cdrecord for me -- a true gift from a gifted. Sad news.
markrages 5y ago
cdrecord first induced me to try Linux in 1997. I had spent $400 on the Sony 2x CD burner with the caddy but Windows wasn't stable enough to reliably burn a disc. cdrecord was free and worth changing operating systems for.
europat 5y ago
I remember that magic as well and also that cdrtoools ran very stable - while buffer under-runs often ruined the then expensive CDRs on Windows. RIP and condolences to the family, he was one of the little known IT heroes despite probably millions having used his software.

dredmorbius 5y ago

https://nitter.kavin.rocks/LaF0rge/status/1447471874821304330 https://nitter.kavin.rocks/LaF0rge/status/144747187482130433...

iso8859-1 5y ago
if I use Mastodon, is there a way I can re-toot that?
- dredmorbius 5y ago
  You can share it as a link. There are also a few (one-way) bridge gateways. So ... kind of.

giords 5y ago

RIP Jörg, many probably don't know him, however his work was at the basis of k3b, Brasero and many other software programs that allowed burning CDs in early 2000s. At least that's what I know him for. Linux expanded and thrived thanks to CD copies and the support of CD recorders was often poor. His work surely affected many and he did his part in bringing Linux to where it is today.

flyinghamster 5y ago
I've burned many a disc thanks to his tools, and going way back! I never had a coaster that wasn't either defective media or my fault. Thanks, Jörg, for useful tools that have kept on being useful.
Agingcoder 5y ago
Indeed - the name did ring a bell when I saw it, and then it all came back when I saw cdrtools at the top of the list (early 2000s in my case as well). Thanks Jorg.

drewg123 5y ago

Such sad news. I remember him from cdrtools. It was amazing because I recall that it ran everywhere in the late 90s. SunOS, Solaris, DEC UNIX, FreeBSD, Linux, etc. That was remarkable for a piece of software that interacted with hardware.

bombcar 5y ago
One of the main reasons I started using Linux was to reliably burn CDs, and cdrecord was part of that. The same hardware on Windows was very hard to dedicate enough power to the recording software in the 95/98 era.
chasil 5y ago
There was also a Windows port of cdrecord that worked. I remember using it.
- strenholme 5y ago
  Indeed. I still use the Windows port of CDRtools to burn CDs in Windows; CDs burned with Microsoft’s built in tools can have issues (such as, if I’m not careful, burning with a UDF filesystem which some CD players will not recognize; also the Windows CD burner can have issues burning a CD which is sector-by-sector the maximum size a given CD blank can fit) which are best fixed by using Schilling’s software instead.

mauvehaus 5y ago

I know as well as anybody that he was a man with strong opinions and a willingness to share them, but he also had a willingness to laugh at himself and his work. In the unlikely event that you ever made to the bottom of the cdrecord manpage, this is what you found: Bugs Cdrecord has even more options than ls.

ahartmetz 5y ago

Besides cdrecord, he created several other high quality tools. I especially remember star, a tar with features that made it much better suitable for real-world tape backups than GNU tar. A friend used it to implement a backup system. I think people in the German nerdsphere had an affection for him because he was a fanatical fan of Solaris, which he liked to get into in all kinds of situations, notably in heated comments on heise.de. It was kind of cute to see such an obviously intelligent guy behave like that. Many geeks and nerds have things that they care much more about than would be considered "normal", after all.

einpoklum 5y ago
Do you know why those features never got adopted into GNU tar?
- ahartmetz 5y ago
  I don't. But I think it was something about splitting an archive over multiple tapes and / or modifying such archives.
- st_goliath 5y ago
  Perhaps not on the surface. GNU tar, for instance, to this day uses the pax header fields introduced by star for storing extended attributes.

h2odragon 5y ago

I had a sparc 2000e, running solaris, with a 1tb disk array built of many 23gb, 8lb monster SCSI disks that had already lived a long life in a TV stations video array. Spread over like a dozen SCSI controller channels. slightly flaky. Many of the things I made that machine do were only possible to me because of Shilling's shared knowledge. Thanks for that. I shall burn a terminator in salute.

jwildeboer 5y ago

I‘ve had my share of flamewars with Jörg, as had many others. But it was always civilised and never went ad hominem. I will miss him. The few times we met in person, we had some good laughs about many things. Tough, but nice guy. Left too soon.

antirez 5y ago

"May his software immortalise him." I wish this was true just a bit. Software goes away with the time almost like no other human artifact.

rob74 5y ago
Sad but true, that was also my first thought when reading this sentence. Especially since he is best known for writing CD/DVD recording software. Small anecdote: this March, I have upgraded my desktop PC, and the new motherboard doesn't have a PATA port, so I haven't been able to use my Plextor CD/DVD recorder anymore for a few months. But I haven't really missed it enough to get me to buy a PATA interface card. And even before, I was only using it to rip audio CDs - I can't really remember when I burned my last CD (or was it a DVD?)...
- alias_neo 5y ago
  I mean, unless it's a particularly special PATA drive, why not get a SATA BD-Writer? I have a USB-3.1 BluRay writer I use for burning 50GB-100GB BDs with family photos/videos (alongside other media). The downside is that buying a portable HDD is significantly cheaper TB for TB but I feel they'll fail quicker, who knows, so I keep copies on both.
  - toyg 5y ago
    > buying a portable HDD is significantly cheaper TB for TB but I feel they'll fail quicker It depends on your usage model. If you "burn" a HDD and store it in a drawer, then pull it back after 15 years, chances are it will work fine - whereas the CD might well have lost a lot of data. It might not be cheaper per TB, though.
    - hulitu 5y ago
      It depends very much on the materials used and the development quality.
    - strenholme 5y ago

kleiba 5y ago

We will of course also remember him for his flames. No kidding. I remember pretty well the cdrecord drama back in the day if only from a distance. Very sad to hear this news. RIP.

TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
What was the drama?
- chasil 5y ago
  This seems like a clear analysis. https://lwn.net/Articles/195167/ https://lwn.net/Articles/195167/
  - strenholme 5y ago
    Hopefully, someone (maybe me) will step up to plate and maintain the Debian fork of CDR tools again, for Schilling’s memory if nothing else (and to fix bugs, such as the issue with post-2027 CDR images [1] which I have already fixed). [1] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=990468 https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=990468
  - cxr 5y ago
    Follow up ("The unending story of cdrtools", 2009): <https://lwn.net/Articles/346540/ https://lwn.net/Articles/346540/>
- Saint_Genet 5y ago
  Aside form the licence stuff already linked there were also endless flamewars on how to specify devices when invoking his tools. Schilling was a proponent of SCSI-adressing, and pretty much everyone else wanted to use /dev.

Brian_K_White 5y ago

I used star as part of my companies backups for many years. I loved his opinionation.

verytrivial 5y ago

I clearly burned a lot of CD-Rs in my day because I immediately recognised that surname but didn't know why. Condolences to his loved ones.

otherflavors 5y ago

http://schilytools.sourceforge.net/index.php http://schilytools.sourceforge.net/index.php

TheDesolate0 5y ago

A true software hero was lost today. My deepest condolences to the family and friends.

lifeisstillgood 5y ago

I recognise his name as something that flitted by on copyright pages, for tools that made my life easier, better, and for free. And sad though his passing is, it marks something else for me - that a person committed to "improving the world a little" is recognised without having made billions in an IPO or become a media celebrity. Maybe we can all aim a little lower (or higher depending on how you see it) now. Thank you Jorg. Our condolences to your loved ones.

knbknb 5y ago

I think his last posts on Heise.de Forums were from around Sep 18 2021. On heise.de he commented almost daily, on all sorts of topics.

cyberpunk 5y ago

Damn, I remember working with him to bring cdrutils to solaris back in the day, he was quite no-nonsense but we had quite a lot of fun on irc poking around, star was always faster than gnutar too. Will raise a glass to you tonight, friend.

strenholme 5y ago

First of all, compassion and condolences for Schilling’s family. Second of all, I had a very recent positive interaction with him. I recently was in contact with Mr. Schilling to report a bug in CDR tools. Even though he was (looking back) dying, he was very prompt in replying to me and discussing the bug with me over email. However, even though I gave him a fix, he was unable to apply it, probably because of his poor health. Thirdly, there is a really serious bug in CDR tools: It will start creating bad timestamps in 2028. That’s not a typo: 2028 (not 2038). Because of how ISO 9660 filesystems store timestamps (8-bit number, 0 is 1900), on 2038 (1900 + 128), unless the 8-bit number is explicitly made an unsigned number (assumed with other ISO 9660 implementations), there will be issues with timestamps. [1] A full bug report, complete with a bugfix is here: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=990468 https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=990468 A fork of cdrtools with this bug fixed is on GitHub: https://github.com/samboy/iso9660 https://github.com/samboy/iso9660 Again, prayers for Schilling’s family, and he was very professional in his interactions with me, even in his final days. [1] The issue is with how Schilling’s CDR tools calculates timezones; the time zone becomes an invalid number starting in 2028.

rhabarba 5y ago
> While it has not been brought to court, some lawyers, include the Free Software Foundation’s legal counsel, feel the CDDL may be incompatible with the GNU General Public License (GPL). Which is irrelevant as the code does not contain any GPL code, right?
- strenholme 5y ago
  The cdrtools stuff is GPL because Schilling maintained the code after Eric Youngdale [1] stopped working on it. [1] Youngdale at one point was one of the Yggdrasil Linux developers, for people using Linux long enough to remember that long since abandoned distro.
  - rhabarba 5y ago
    Ah! I see. Thank you, I missed this part of the story.

jzb 5y ago

I haven't thought about him in ages, or cdrtools, but I benefited heavily from his software once upon a time. The cdrtools flamewars seem positively quaint these days. Clearly a talented developer and his work definitely was a help in open source catching on.

einpoklum 5y ago

I never interacted with Mr. Schilling, but when I saw the title, I was telling myself: "Jorg Schilling, Jorg Schilling, I know that name for sure" - then I remember: I would see that copyright notice a thousand times waiting on a mkisofs + cdrecord session back when GUI tools weren't quite there yet. In Hebrew they say: חבל עד דאבדין ולא משתכחין (well, technically it's part Aramaic) Rest In Piece and honor for paving important stretches of the road on which the world of software marches on.

DeathArrow 5y ago

His modest homepage: http://cdrtools.sourceforge.net/private/ http://cdrtools.sourceforge.net/private/

dang 5y ago

Related: Profile: Jörg Schilling (2005) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28827572 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28827572

badRNG 5y ago

Isn't this the sort of death that warrants the HN black bar?

anonymous201 5y ago

He was my colleague several years ago, sitting just one door from mine (but not working on the same projects) He had an office with lot of hardware stacking up. I tried a few times to talked with him about new promising techs like Nix and Rust, to push him a bit outside of his boundaries. He did not really cared and derailed the conversation and asked if the Nix shell was POSIX compliant (I think it was more or less the situation, time has passed...). I didn't follow all the drama with regards to the licensing of his code but it was clear that he had strong opinions and it was not easy to change them. He was super specialized in C and Unix and I had a lot of respect that he used the same tech his whole career. You could not ignore him when he was in a room, he had a strong presence. I always saw him joyful. He used to told me some stupid jokes regularly also. My sincere condolences to everybody that will miss him.

pradn 5y ago

It's wonderful to see his OSS work celebrated. One can only hope to be recognized for great work like this at the end of their life. I don't do much open-source work, and most corporate systems I worked on will probably be obsolete by then. Alas! A life comprises many things.

Sharat_Chander 5y ago

RIP Schily

cnst 5y ago

Very nice guy! I will remember him for his CDDL flames and my invitation for him to answer the CDDL/GPL debate over at the brand new SE OSS site right at the launch in 2015, which he gladly accepted. I vaguely recall making this question explicitly for him to answer, seeing that he was already on the site, and me needing a total of 10 QA entries to get an Area51 badge for a follow-through on the launch of the site as a founding member. He didn't disappoint and provided a great answer! He was not shy of having a good argument and defending the position he thought was correct even if such position was extremely unpopular and futile to have and to defend: https://archive.is/4JzAE https://archive.is/4JzAE https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/2094/are-cddl-and-gpl-really-incompatible https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/2094/are-cddl... Very sad to learn he's gone. RIP.

bombcar 5y ago
It's unfortunate that we'll probably never get a legal answer to the question from any authority - but it appears that more and more people are considering them to be "compatible enough" - see Ubuntu shipping ZFS in the default image.
- AceJohnny2 5y ago
  It boils down to being a contractual dispute, and until the stakeholders decide to spent the millions of dollars to battle it in courts, it'll remain an unanswered question. Of course, the difficulty of many GPL projects is in identifying the stakeholders, and getting them to agree on action. The real risk comes from OpenZFS, where the majority of the copyright is held by Oracle (formerly Sun). Oracle is an evil, evil organization in regards to IP, so I can only assume their reason for not taking action is 1) it's not worth their time or 2) they're waiting until a big wealthy organization depends on it before they can spring their trap.
  - lproven 5y ago
    > they're waiting until a big wealthy organization depends on it > before they can spring their trap I don't think they can any more. The principle of laches applies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laches_(equity) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laches_(equity) This is why Microsoft's threats against the Linux desktop in around 2007 failed: the IP that they claimed, the Windows 95 desktop look and feel -- Start menu, taskbar etc. -- is stuff that Microsoft 100% did invent, but 12 years later is... Well, _the Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ was published 42 years ago today, and it still rings true. To quote Chapter 3 of the Guide: "You've had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it's far too late to start making a fuss about it now." ZFS has been included in Ubuntu since 16.04. Oracle has known and has had five years to raise an objection. It has not done so. It is now too late, by the principle of laches. It may try, of course, but the lawsuit should be pretty brief because the defense is right there: why didn't Oracle file a complaint in 2016?

smarks 5y ago

That's very sad. Like many others, I used `cdrecord` and `mkisofs` back in the day. But mainly I remember him for his work on SCCS. That code was AT&T proprietary for a long time, but it was open-sourced as part of OpenSolaris. Schilling made it portable and produced binaries for several platforms, including the Mac. He even gave some conference talks on this topic. By the time he did that work, most projects had already moved onto other version control systems. But there are older, closed-source histories of various projects (such as Java) that are still in SCCS, and I find his tools useful to this day for investigating those histories. Condolences to his family.

jpgvm 5y ago

Fuck cancer. We will miss you schilly. Thanks for all your excellent software. May you code in peace with the *nix gods.