Hans Reiser: Once a Linux Visionary, Now Accused of Murder
There was one thing, probably only one of the few, I really like of Linux since the first time I've installed in 1997 (wow already 10 years), especially in SuSE (now NOVELL) and that was the Reiser filesystem.
A file system organizes data on a computer. When you double-click a Microsoft Word document on your desktop, for instance, the file system tells the processor where to find the data. When you upload a picture from your camera, the file system decides how to place the information on your hard drive. Every bit and byte — including the operating system itself — has its place in the layers upon layers of branching directories. "A file system represents the roads and waterways of the OS,"
Differently from Windows, where there are only 2 major filesystem as FAT32 and NTFS, in Linux there are many different types, some of them developed under other OS (OS=Operating Systems) and later bring into the Linux Kernel. The most common at the point of time was the 'ext2' (now replaced by the 'ext3') that was the "installed by default" in 99% of all linux distributions at that point of time. But ReiserFS was much much superior in quality, in performance and in stability. But Hans Raiser (its developer) was a bit "strange" fellow... that never to be liked by Linux's owner, Mr. Linus Torvalds (someone I would like to call "the idiot", imho anyway). People believe the ReiserFS never got the full right attention from Mr. Linus (at that point of time the only person that can decide what can go into his linux kernel), simply because Linux kernel itself was getting much less attention (= $$ paid by big softwarehouses) compared to a small part of it, a filesystem.
Anyway, 10 years of debates, arguments, ets are too long to be zipped inside here...
Hans Reiser, one time one of the most respected programmers in the world, is now a jailed man, waiting for the probe starting next week; at the bottom of this post there is a link to an article posted on one of my favourite magazine, WIRED, that combined 4 interviews made to him since he has been jailed.
A file system organizes data on a computer. When you double-click a Microsoft Word document on your desktop, for instance, the file system tells the processor where to find the data. When you upload a picture from your camera, the file system decides how to place the information on your hard drive. Every bit and byte — including the operating system itself — has its place in the layers upon layers of branching directories. "A file system represents the roads and waterways of the OS,"
Differently from Windows, where there are only 2 major filesystem as FAT32 and NTFS, in Linux there are many different types, some of them developed under other OS (OS=Operating Systems) and later bring into the Linux Kernel. The most common at the point of time was the 'ext2' (now replaced by the 'ext3') that was the "installed by default" in 99% of all linux distributions at that point of time. But ReiserFS was much much superior in quality, in performance and in stability. But Hans Raiser (its developer) was a bit "strange" fellow... that never to be liked by Linux's owner, Mr. Linus Torvalds (someone I would like to call "the idiot", imho anyway). People believe the ReiserFS never got the full right attention from Mr. Linus (at that point of time the only person that can decide what can go into his linux kernel), simply because Linux kernel itself was getting much less attention (= $$ paid by big softwarehouses) compared to a small part of it, a filesystem.
Anyway, 10 years of debates, arguments, ets are too long to be zipped inside here...
Hans Reiser, one time one of the most respected programmers in the world, is now a jailed man, waiting for the probe starting next week; at the bottom of this post there is a link to an article posted on one of my favourite magazine, WIRED, that combined 4 interviews made to him since he has been jailed.
The end of the article (along with Reiser's inability to account for his front seat) seems to suggest Reiser knows more than he is telling.
"Sean Sturgeon — Reiser's childhood friend and Nina's ex-lover" had apparently confessed to eight killings, but would not give names. He swears he did not kill Nina, but claims the author would 'weep and piss blood' if he knew all the details of Reiser's friendship with Sturgeon.
"Sean Sturgeon — Reiser's childhood friend and Nina's ex-lover" had apparently confessed to eight killings, but would not give names. He swears he did not kill Nina, but claims the author would 'weep and piss blood' if he knew all the details of Reiser's friendship with Sturgeon.
Personally, I think the guy isn't all there. Of course I've always been told that the line between genius and insanity is a very thin faint one.
They all sound too whacked out to be raising kids. Regardless of who killed Nina (if she's dead, that is), the real victims are those kids. They're going to grow up without a mother or a father, and what few memories they will have of their childhood will be stranger than some of my nightmares.
A sad case all the way around. Each of those lives is destroyed and the open source community has lost a prolific (if eccentric and pushy) contributor.
http://www.wired.com
They all sound too whacked out to be raising kids. Regardless of who killed Nina (if she's dead, that is), the real victims are those kids. They're going to grow up without a mother or a father, and what few memories they will have of their childhood will be stranger than some of my nightmares.
A sad case all the way around. Each of those lives is destroyed and the open source community has lost a prolific (if eccentric and pushy) contributor.
http://www.wired.com
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