ReiserFS creator arrested over missing woman

[Ben Scott]

On 10/11/06, Bayard Coolidge <n1ho at yahoo.com> wrote:
> As pointed out in other fora, this means that progress on the
> Reiser4 filesystem, as well as support for earlier work, will be
> somewhat jeopardized.

  Fortunately, the nature of Free(dom) Software means that software
only dies if there isn't sufficient interest in it.  Anyone can take
over the code, or hire someone to do so.  Probabbly not something you
or I would do personally, but a feasible option for a large company,
or even a cooperative of smaller users.

  This is in stark contrast to what happens when a commercial
organization disolves -- or even just drops support for a product.  In
those situations, the only thing one can do is undertake a (typically
expensive and painful) forced migration to a different product.

> ... all we can do is speculate on the facts of the case.

  Indeed.  I find that groundless speculation is generally, well,
groundless.  Or, as one Slashdotter put it:

     "Can we get some more speculation?  What if he's found guilty, and the
      project is continued by other people, and renamed to avoid infamy, and
      Reiser loses his first appeal because his lawyer fails to
subpoena critical
      records from the medical examiner's office, and Reiser 4 is
finally completed
      and included in Linux 5.0, but develops stability issues, and around that
      time Hans is acquitted in a later appeal based on new evidence, and he
      rejoins the project? Will they change the name back?"

(http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=200131&cid=16386773)

-- Ben