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Sorry to reply again, but I just remembered we do have an example of software being "cancelled" like this. ReiserFS. The creator was convicted of murder and it

Sorry to reply again, but I just remembered we do have an example of software being "cancelled" like this. ReiserFS. The creator was convicted of murder and it went away. It was open source and could have been carried on by others, but wasn't. Granted, the technical advantages of ReiserFS had already been replicated elsewhere by that point.

imiric 2y ago
Right, but ReiserFS was only officially deprecated in 2022, and removed from the kernel in 2024. The conviction happened in 2008. I don't think this counts as "cancellation". Interest in the filesystem waned over the years, in part surely due to the criminal case. But it was also technically superseded by other filesystems, so there wasn't any reason for keeping it. There was some chatter about Reiser4/5 a few years ago, and someone somewhere is probably still running and maintaining it outside of the kernel. As awful as that case was, I think it speaks to the possibility of separating art from artist. There's no reason that awful human beings, by whatever criteria we decide to label them as such, can't produce things that have artistic or technical merit. At the end of the day, we're all flawed in different ways. Chances are that many of the authors, artists, and celebrities we hold in high regard have thought or done things we wouldn't agree with, yet we never hear about it. Dismissing someone's entire existence because they've done something objectionable, or in this day and age simply said or implied something objectionable, is wrong IMO. Outrage travels like wildfire online, and can often be sparked by a misunderstanding, which is then amplified in various echo chambers. I'm not saying that wrong behavior should be swept under the rug. People should be held accountable for their words and actions. But at the same time, let's not crucify people because of some collective moral outrage against them. Context and nuance matter. The world would be a better place if we knew how to talk to each other despite of our differences.
- asveikau 2y ago
  > Right, but ReiserFS was only officially deprecated in 2022, and removed from the kernel in 2024. I was googling this again and surprised that it took that long. In distro land the response was much faster. Close to the murder, distros had it in the stock install, selectable from the installer, even some as a default. That changed pretty quickly. I guess the kernel itself needs to move slowly on a deprecation like this, because some users will have the FS lying around on disk for many years after it is common. Effectively locking people out of their data is a big step.

imiric 2y ago

Right, but ReiserFS was only officially deprecated in 2022, and removed from the kernel in 2024. The conviction happened in 2008. I don't think this counts as "cancellation". Interest in the filesystem waned over the years, in part surely due to the criminal case. But it was also technically superseded by other filesystems, so there wasn't any reason for keeping it. There was some chatter about Reiser4/5 a few years ago, and someone somewhere is probably still running and maintaining it outside of the kernel. As awful as that case was, I think it speaks to the possibility of separating art from artist. There's no reason that awful human beings, by whatever criteria we decide to label them as such, can't produce things that have artistic or technical merit. At the end of the day, we're all flawed in different ways. Chances are that many of the authors, artists, and celebrities we hold in high regard have thought or done things we wouldn't agree with, yet we never hear about it. Dismissing someone's entire existence because they've done something objectionable, or in this day and age simply said or implied something objectionable, is wrong IMO. Outrage travels like wildfire online, and can often be sparked by a misunderstanding, which is then amplified in various echo chambers. I'm not saying that wrong behavior should be swept under the rug. People should be held accountable for their words and actions. But at the same time, let's not crucify people because of some collective moral outrage against them. Context and nuance matter. The world would be a better place if we knew how to talk to each other despite of our differences.

asveikau 2y ago
> Right, but ReiserFS was only officially deprecated in 2022, and removed from the kernel in 2024. I was googling this again and surprised that it took that long. In distro land the response was much faster. Close to the murder, distros had it in the stock install, selectable from the installer, even some as a default. That changed pretty quickly. I guess the kernel itself needs to move slowly on a deprecation like this, because some users will have the FS lying around on disk for many years after it is common. Effectively locking people out of their data is a big step.