Peter Humphrey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> posted
[EMAIL PROTECTED], excerpted below, on  Tue, 30 May
2006 09:53:21 +0100:

> No sign of Reiser yet, as far as I can see, but ext3 is there so I've been 
> using that for my Linux partitions. But for me, by far the worst part of PM 
> is not a limitation but a swaggering arrogance - that its programmers know 
> my system and my needs better than I do, so that I have no option but to 
> yield. That makes the program simply unusable, and I intend to tell them 
> so.

Well, it's possible that's due to them being bought out by Symantec
(according to a recent /. comment I was reading, with several replies
agreeing). I don't know when it happened, but it couldn't have been too
long ago as the comment I read mentioning it said they'd probably destroy
it, like they did all the other stuff they've bought over the years, which
implies they haven't had it long enough for it to occur yet.

In any case, that's one of the reasons I don't do closed source any more
-- Libreware devs just seem so much more willing to listen to the
user -- and if they don't, someone will likely fork it and do the
listening the original author wouldn't.  It's like thinking back on a bad
dream, or like an abuse victim looking back at what happened, and
shuddering at how bad it was and how it seemed there wasn't a way out, and
resolving "never again will I allow myself to be subjected to that!"  Yes,
it's an almost physical revulsion, and yes, it is to that extent.  To
subject myself to that type of environment once again is unthinkable.

...  And people wonder at why I call it slaveryware.  One of the Gentoo
devs actually took issue with that, saying I had no right to call it that,
as it was making light of slavery.  In the ensuing rather heated
discussion, I eventually explained that I DID feel it was a freedom issue,
and that while I couldn't say for sure that I'd be willing to die rather
than submit again to slavery, I felt that the issue was significant enough
that I /should/ feel that way.  After he realized how strongly I felt
about it, that it was NOT making light of slavery, but rather,
deliberately chosen terminology to show exactly how strong my feeling was
on the subject, and that if I wouldn't quite die for it, I thought I
/should/ be willing to die for it, he did allow that while he could never
feel that way about it and he still didn't agree with the term, he could
at least now see why I insisted on using the term, and that for me at
least, it /was/ that serious an issue -- tho he obviously thought I was
rather misguided in giving it that sort of importance.

Too bad they aren't doing reiserfs yet, tho PM being commercial closed
source and the file system code being GPL and Namesys a commercial entity
as well, I expect Namesys may have required a license to code for it, so I
can see how they may not be willing to support it given the demand. 
Still, if they don't yet support it, I'm glad I switched when I did, as
reiserfs is all I use on the hard drive.  (I have it built-into the
kernel, with ext2 and fat as modules, to be loaded for use with floppies
and the like -- only.)  They probably don't support Linux kernel RAID
volumes or LVM on kernel-raid, either, which means they'd be scoring a big
fat ZERO in terms of supporting what I'm now running.  I guess that means
I've entirely outgrown them -- like a kid outgrowing his GI JOE figures. 
<shrug>  Just as well for me anyway, since regardless, I couldn't and
wouldn't go back, for the reasons explained above, but too bad others
can't be using it for that.



-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

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