LinuxWorld

Linux visionary convicted of murder

Linux visionary Hans Reiser has been convicted of first-degree murder for killing his estranged wife in 2006 and faces life imprisonment.

Related links

No results were found for your search.

Your query is too restrictive.
You might want to try: data center

Reiser, founder of Namesys which develops the Linux-based Reiser file systems, was charged with the deliberate and premeditated murder of Nina Reiser by an Oakland, California courthouse after an almost six-month trial.

The fate of the troubled ReiserFS and Reiser4 file systems may be sealed, following media reports that Namesys has ceased commercial activity and the rapid loss of support for the latter system in the open source community.

ReiserFS was the first journaling file system included in the Linux kernel and is the default system for a number of distributions including Elive, Linspire, and Xandros.

Reiser4 is a separate redevelopment which has failed to gain traction in open source communities, despite receiving funds from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Linspire.

Novell withdrew its commitment to use Reiser4 in its SUSE Linux distribution, and opted for the more popular ext3 file system.

Jonathan Corbet, founder of Linux news Web site LWN.net, told Computerworld US the Reiser project was stymied after the arrest of Hans Reiser in October 2006.

"Had Hans not been arrested, there is a reasonable chance that Reiser4 would have made it into the kernel by now," Corbet said.

"The end of Namesys as a functioning company is what really stopped progress with Reiser4.

"There are still a couple of people putting some volunteer effort into Reiser4, so it could, just maybe, still make it into the mainline [kernel] someday, but progress is very slow and there's not a whole lot of people who are interested anymore."

The conviction was handed down amid a lack of evidence including the body of Nina Reiser, possible weapons, and motive.

The Reisers were separated at the time of the murder, and were in the middle of a contentious divorce and battle for custody of their two children.

Hans Reiser was arrested a month after the killing after authorities discovered traces of blood in his home and car. The court also heard that Reiser had removed the front passenger seat of his Honda Civic and hosed the interior.


React: Give us your thoughts on the issues here.
Use this form to start a public discussion with other Linux World users on this article.
Log In | Register for an account (Why you should)

Note: Register to have your user name appear; otherwise your comment will show up as "Anonymous."

*Anonymous comments will only appear once they are approved by the moderator.

Newsletter sign-up

Sign up for one of Network World's newsletters compliments of Linux World

Linux & Open Source News Alert
Web Applications Alert
Video & Podcast Alert
Security: Threat  Alert
Virtualization Alert

Email Address: