SELF: Anatomy of an (alleged) failure

“One might question the wisdom of using Hans Reiser as an
example of the kernel development process gone wrong, as Gordon
did. Reiser had a contentious relationship with the kernel
community to begin with, and the fact that it was necessary to cite
correspondence from Reiser’s cell tends to undermine his
credibility. But Gordon is to be credited with, at least, being
thorough in interviewing his sources. Gordon showed several letters
from Reiser gathered over months of correspondence about the
failure to get Reiser4 into the mainline kernel.

“He described the problems that Reiser had in attempting to get
Reiser4 into the kernel. In an unfortunate analogy, he said that
Reiser failed to get a “fair trial” from the kernel community in
considering Reiser4. Gordon also hinted that corporate interests
may have sabotaged Reiser4 from being adapted into mainline —
a longstanding contention of Reiser’s — because of
conflicting interests on behalf of the maintainers, though he cited
no evidence for it. Gordon painted the kernel community as abusive
towards Reiser, but omitted any mention that Reiser could also be
caustic in return. Certainly, Gordon’s point that the FAQ on
KernelNewbies is unnecessarily personal is well-taken.”

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