Hans Reiser, the author of the eponymous Linux filesystem,
has been arrested on suspicion of murdering his wife, who went missing more than a month ago.
More sordid background details here.
Meanwhile,
the Slashdot peanut gallery has been busy; in between impassioned debates on the death penalty, sincere hopes that this does not disrupt a fine project (now
that would be a tragedy!) and discussions on whether ReiserFS will be renamed if he is found guilty, there have been a lot of off-colour jokes:
What's the difference between O.J. and Hans Reiser?
Hans kept a journal.
If the transaction doesn't commit, you must acquit!
Not to mention the following observations:
This isn't meant to be funny or insensitive ... but if he did do it and is found guilty it seems like he'll have a bunch of time on his hand. You know, with the long jail sentence and all. Is their a reason why he can't continue working on this project from jail? Also, working on a OSS with your free time in jail seems like it might get you some good behavior points.
Glad to see someone's got their priorities straight...
That weird geek reflex to make the geek part of everything primary surfaces here. On a Livejournal thread about I saw something like "I suppose someone who is really effective in one area isn't in some others" as though being charged for murder and being the author of a useful piece of software were somehow roughly equivalent. Such a strange world geeks inhabit.