this post was submitted on 21 May 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] technom@programming.dev 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The kernel isn't a place to play politics. You can't just yank a component out like that on short notice, even if it has such a horrible story attached to it.

Back then, ReiserFS was mildly popular and its use would have been widespread (that includes me). The users of ReiserFS and probably even the other kernel devs had no idea that Hans Reiser was capable of such a crime. Infact, he was known as a computer prodigy back then.

There are plenty of users who don't have the luxury of migrating data on a short notice to a different filesystem. Disabling the filesystem would have left them high and dry. That's why the devs gave it a long deprecation period.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 months ago

The kernel isn’t a place to play politics. You can’t just yank a component out like that on short notice, even if it has such a horrible story attached to it.

I didn't say to rip out the kernel module - just to reject or fix the README to be more appropriate. As you say - it's not a place to play politics and the original README did.

I'm saying what they just did should have been done a long time ago for the same reasons they did it now. It's not appropriate to air such crap in the source tree.