6 ms·

I presume by personality they're referring to Hans Reiser, the creator of ReiserFS, also a convicted murderer. Past HN thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/ite

by anxrn 5y ago

I presume by personality they're referring to Hans Reiser, the creator of ReiserFS, also a convicted murderer. Past HN thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2131221 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2131221

daneel_w 5y ago
Yes. Pretty much everyone is aware of the elephant in the room. It's just not relevant to address said elephant since it has no bearing on technical discussions, which is what the author of the e-mail thread pro-actively underlined.
- more_corn 5y ago
  Isn’t it relevant though? The sole author and support person is AFK for the foreseeable future.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - prmoustache 5y ago
    Edward Shishkin has been the main maintener of reiser4 for years.
  - sp332 5y ago
    Besides the fact that other people have been maintaining it, he was sentenced to 15 years in 2008. He could be out next year.
- lbriner 5y ago
  The fact he is a murderer might not be relevant to the discussion per-se but his unavailability to help fixes/improvements to be made is a big issue as the author of the FS. I don't know anything about it and whether other contributors are able to give as much input as he could but judging by the comments of unfixed bugs and few commits, it would sound like it is a big risk of stagnation. No?
  - watwut 5y ago
    It is not like he would be the only person capable of contributing into it ever.
  - daneel_w 5y ago
    Everyone understands the implications for a piece of software when its principal developer disappears. Wallowing in the details won't change anything. It's been years already.
mpalczewski 5y ago
Anything to prevent them from changing the name of the filesystem?
- kerneloftruth 5y ago
  Why erase history? It happened, and it's interesting.
  - baq 5y ago
    Entities rebrand all the time, because humans associate qualities with names. New name makes room for new associations.
  - frostwarrior 5y ago
    Because companies may not want to be involved in a product called "PersonWhoIsConvictedWithMurder-FS". Let history be. But rename the project to something like ChameleonFS. Hans Reiser's mentions will still be in the git history.
    - mcronce 5y ago
      At my previous job, we used reiserfs. We generally referred to it internally as murderfs. Not that I think that's good rebranding, but it did amuse us.
      - pmarreck 5y ago
        This sounds like it would have been a fun place to work
        mcronce 5y ago
        Honestly it was really great until it wasn't. I was there for almost ten years. The pay left a bit to be desired, but for the most part, everything else was so awesome that it was cool. Then after some management changes, everything that made it great melted away and we were left with a job that underpays, has poor work-life balance, doesn't appreciate employee time/contributions, etc. It was still a pretty difficult decision to leave; management issues notwithstanding, the group of coworkers I actually worked with every day were - and still are - really great.

by anxrn 5y ago

daneel_w 5y ago

Yes. Pretty much everyone is aware of the elephant in the room. It's just not relevant to address said elephant since it has no bearing on technical discussions, which is what the author of the e-mail thread pro-actively underlined.

more_corn 5y ago
Isn’t it relevant though? The sole author and support person is AFK for the foreseeable future.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- prmoustache 5y ago
  Edward Shishkin has been the main maintener of reiser4 for years.
- sp332 5y ago
  Besides the fact that other people have been maintaining it, he was sentenced to 15 years in 2008. He could be out next year.
lbriner 5y ago
The fact he is a murderer might not be relevant to the discussion per-se but his unavailability to help fixes/improvements to be made is a big issue as the author of the FS. I don't know anything about it and whether other contributors are able to give as much input as he could but judging by the comments of unfixed bugs and few commits, it would sound like it is a big risk of stagnation. No?
- watwut 5y ago
  It is not like he would be the only person capable of contributing into it ever.
- daneel_w 5y ago
  Everyone understands the implications for a piece of software when its principal developer disappears. Wallowing in the details won't change anything. It's been years already.

mpalczewski 5y ago

Anything to prevent them from changing the name of the filesystem?

kerneloftruth 5y ago
Why erase history? It happened, and it's interesting.
- baq 5y ago
  Entities rebrand all the time, because humans associate qualities with names. New name makes room for new associations.
- frostwarrior 5y ago
  Because companies may not want to be involved in a product called "PersonWhoIsConvictedWithMurder-FS". Let history be. But rename the project to something like ChameleonFS. Hans Reiser's mentions will still be in the git history.
  - mcronce 5y ago
    At my previous job, we used reiserfs. We generally referred to it internally as murderfs. Not that I think that's good rebranding, but it did amuse us.
    - pmarreck 5y ago
      This sounds like it would have been a fun place to work
      - mcronce 5y ago
        Honestly it was really great until it wasn't. I was there for almost ten years. The pay left a bit to be desired, but for the most part, everything else was so awesome that it was cool. Then after some management changes, everything that made it great melted away and we were left with a job that underpays, has poor work-life balance, doesn't appreciate employee time/contributions, etc. It was still a pretty difficult decision to leave; management issues notwithstanding, the group of coworkers I actually worked with every day were - and still are - really great.