If Gentoo can die off, ReiserFS is doomed (was Re: Reiser FS or ext3?)

[Jeffrey Watts]

Leo, I totally get all of that.  My comment was that the gossipy extras
wasn't really germane, and served as a distraction to a _technical
discussion_.

Here's the problem with your attempt to compare Gentoo with ReiserFS.
Gentoo is a _distribution_.  If the Gentoo development team doesn't update
it regularly, it usually becomes rapidly vulnerable to security issues and
becomes unsafe.  That is the main problem with distributions becoming
abandonware.

ReiserFS is a filesystem.  SuSE supports ReiserFS.  Just because Hans Reiser
is in jail doesn't mean his filesystem will start losing data or murdering
russians.  Last I looked, it should continue to work just as before.  SuSE,
as the _distribution_, will continue to maintain ReiserFS as best it can.  I
can imagine that if SuSE starts having issues with the software that they
can't fix themselves they might drop SuSE support in the future (but not in
the present).  I also imagine that ReiserFS support will be dropped should
the project dry up and no new development occur (die on the vine).  But none
of that has any effect on his ability to safely run ReiserFS, today.

However, my point to you is that the sordid details have very little to do
with a _technical decision_ as to which filesystem to use.  It doesn't sound
like he's running a datacenter.  He's looking for advice on a journalling
filesystem.  I think it's germane to offer criticism of the downsides of
ReiserFS, and I think it can be informative to point out that there's a
future development concern, but he's asking about a journaling filesystem on
an older distribution release, so I don't think he's too worried about the
future.

Regardless of all of this, consensus is probably that he ought to use ext3,
and that if he's not on a distro that supports it (I don't know my SuSE
releases anymore), he ought to upgrade to one that does.

Jeffrey.

P.S.  I'm really not interested in getting into another endless debate with
you Leo, so you may want to save some of your time by keeping your
inevitable response short.  I'm unlikely to reply.

On Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 2:30 AM, Leo Mauler <webgiant at yahoo.com> wrote:

>
> The mere existence of open source code is like DNA in a jar in a freezer: a
> blueprint for someone to take and run with, but not actual evidence of life,
> and until someone gets out the metaphorical "turkey baster" and finds a
> not-so-metaphorical willing developer, the project will remain DNA in a jar.
>
> Case in point: *Gentoo Linux*, which is dying a fairly swift death thanks
> to the departure of Gentoo Linux's project leader.
>
> Gentoo's decline: A case of missing leadership
> September 22, 2008 7:07 AM PDT
>
> http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10047439-16.html?tag=mncol;title
>
> TinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/49b3th
>
> "The most interesting thing about the current state of gentoo is that it's
> a very clear (and well documented) example of how the success of a large
> open source project, regardless of the personal devotion of its user base,
> is tightly coupled to the strength of its leadership. Interesting also that
> despite the projects strong attraction of 'power users', the community has
> been unable to convert these users into active developers."
>
> I think this pretty much underlines my point that, absent proper
> leadership, an open source project is a bunch of bits on a hard drive.
>
> Blog Entry from the creator of Gentoo, who saw Gentoo's demise coming last
> year:
> http://blog.funtoo.org/2007/07/so-can-i-have-gentoo-back.html
>
> "It appears that the Gentoo Foundation may be disappearing in a matter of
> time. Apparently, no one has time to actually do the work required to run
> the Foundation."
>
> Hans Reiser had to pay a half dozen people to do work on his ReiserFS.
>  With Reiser in prison no one is getting paid for their work, so there's no
> real incentive to improve on it.
>
>


-- 

"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from
oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that
will reach to himself." -- Thomas Paine
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