Hans Reiser arrested on suspicion of murder
 

From /.:

Many readers wrote about the arrest today of Hans Reiser, author of ReiserFS, by Oakland, CA police on suspicion of murdering his estranged wife.

From the San Francisco Chronicle: "Hans Reiser, 42, was taken into custody at 11 a.m., hours after Oakland police and FBI technicians searched his home in the Oakland hills. His estranged wife, Nina Reiser, 31, has been missing since Sept. 3, when she dropped off the couple's son and daughter at his home on the 6900 block of Exeter Drive... Police made the arrest based on circumstantial evidence and have not found Nina Reiser's body, [Hans Reiser's attorney] Du Bois said. 'I have no idea what the circumstantial evidence is,' he said. 'When I hear what the evidence is against him, I'll make a decision as to whether he'll talk to them.'"

kimvette writes, "While the disappearance (and possible murder) of his wife is tragic, Linux users will wonder where this will leave Reiser 4. If Reiser is found guilty, will Novell or IBM pick up the pieces and finish up Reiser 4 for inclusion in the kernel or is this the end of the Reiser filesystem project? Will there be any future for the Reiser filesystem, and if Hans is found guilty and the project is continued, will the project be renamed to avoid notoriety?"

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/11/0142216

You never know, could make Reiser even more popular hmm.. the ReiserFS that is. Its happened before, it could happen again.

For example when electricity was just being introduced, they decieded to have the first execution by eletric chair. Afraid this would D/C power a bad name, Edison wouldn't let them use it. Instead they used the competing A/C current, which resulted in massive amounts of publicity for A/C, and now every home in America is wired up with A/C not D/C.
(I think that was Eidson, to tired to look it up right now)

Actually Edison invented the electric chair himself so he could smear his fierce competitor... a team of George Westinghouse and Nikolai Tesla. He promoted his direct current as the safe alternative to alternating current. He rallied the press and basically said: "Look what my competitor is capable of doing!" Then the state of New York basically melted, burned, and cooked a man in horrific, torturous fashion. While offense was certain taken, people realized that the amount of energy necessary to do such a horror could also be used more effectively to do some fantastic things and hence the standard of alternating current was born.

So I'm not all that sure that the anaology applies to the Reiser case. However, upon seeing this story, I did have a flash in my brain that the possibility of terrible conspiracy-style wrongdoings are quite real. So who exactly would benefit from the "availability" of the development of ReiserFS?

All that aside I hope that this isn't what it seems. It would seem a terrible waste of a great mind to have it rot in prison for this. The breakup of a family and the (possible violent) loss of a life and a mother. It really just doesn't look good and I have to admit that this kind of thing saddens me. And for some reason this hits a little closer to home to me for some reason.... can't put my finger on that. Murder, alleged or proven, just doesn't sit well in my computing world.

With that being said, this whole thing just seems fishy. Arrested on circumstantial evidence? To where did he try to escape? Where's the body?... the empirical evidence? Who talked? If none of this can be answered, then when did California just decide to ignore U.S. law and presume guilt over innocence?

I need more information... but I certainly don't like where this is going any way it is resolved... :(

Read the background on the situation - apparently Hans has some anger issues.

That's disturbing.
Why? What would stop him maintaining it from prison?

True... he does seem to be quite bitter over his financial situation... the divorce just doesn't help that at all. Assuming he actually did this... my point is basically that I'm saddened to watch such intelligence deteriorate into this particular situation. It's even worse that he cannot handle it and allows himself to be embittered.

The whole thing is unsettling... every aspect of it... from beginning to end... :(

Strange and bizarre. I generally think software developers generally tend to develop an innate streak of aggression somewhere because of hours and hours of coding which can take a toll on their social life... going by all the flame wars on licensing and FOSS and stuff, I wouldn't be surprised if some of that aggression actually took on a physical violent form.

Ummm, No... please don't include me in these kinds of generalizations. When I saw this news, my only hope was that she is safe and OK, not whether the status or schedule for Reiser4 might be affected.

Please see http://www.ninareiser.com/

Yeah, I agree, even though you might have the best intentions, that kind of thing makes it look a bit callous.

I agree with you there. My first thoughts were, "I hope he didn't do it" and that she is alive and safe somewhere. I didn't even think about reiserfs4 because it doesn't seem that important when compared to someones life.

Reiserfs future
 

It looks like Reiserfs creator is in big trouble.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...GERLM3RR15.DTL

If he's proven guilty, this filesystem development won't stop: a good point for FOSS !

A similar thread has been posted in Linux - News.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=491286

Indeed, my mistake.

I always knew there was something I didn't like about ReiserFS.. but something like this, if the kids aren't missing with her, it's usually a bad sign. If he (Hans) did do this, I hope he rots in a jail cell for the rest of his life.

personally it amazes me how when a woman's very life is in question people spend a single second giving a shit about a fscking filesystem... good grief.