"The Roundup is not the place to second-guess the jury's decision, but there is the immediate impact of the the conviction's effect on ReiserFS, which is still the default filesystem for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Debian GNU/Linux. The filesystem is also mainlined into the Linux kernel.
"Beyond the typical social aversion that could crop up from SUSE's parent company Novell and the kernel and Debian communities for being associated with Reiser's work, the more practical concern right now is the latest stable version is ReiserFS 3. ReiserFS 4 was just getting started when Nina Reiser went missing (now presumed killed), and it seems unlikely at this point that it will be moving forward..."
