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Comment by baggy_trough | Hacker News Reader

A jerk is one thing; a murderer is something else.

If a murderer creates a file system/energy source/mouse trap that is effectively better than all of the alternatives, and generates value to the world, what he did in his personal life is effectively moot. There is no ethics problem involved in choosing the best solution to a problem, when that solution exists.

If financially supporting said murderer allows them to continue to possibly murder more, then I would say there is a moral dilemma. Less so when the murderer is in jail and unlikely to ever really benefit from your using said solution.

I mean if they are a murderer then would not the legal system put them in jail? Also if they serve their sentence are they not adjudicated?

Not if they can afford lawyers to build enough layers between them and the people who pull the lever.

> effectively better than all of the alternatives

Which gladly rarely happens, so often you still have sufficient choice. Now, if it turns out Euler sabotaged some bridges and caused deaths, you'd still have a hard time avoiding using e.

But for software? It's usually rather easy to find alternatives. And ReiserFS never was an exception here.

Yet for many people, the very act of choosing results in a halo that goes beyond the acquisition itself.

You may think you’re choosing a technology, and nothing further. But others may see your decision as a broader endorsement.

Are they right to do so? Don’t know. Maybe not.

But it is a real effect. The quandary is therefore ethical.

no the quandary is political. it's about how others see you.

Politics is, among other things, a way to negotiate the ethics of a society and how they're applied.

you can replace "ethics" with most common nouns in that sentence and it'll probably work.

> There is no ethics problem involved in choosing the best solution to a problem, when that solution exists.

I constantly see people insisting there is, though. Lots of people boycott software just based on the surrounding context.

ReiserFS hasn't been the best solution in a long, long while. Even before the murder case it was often more trouble than it was worth.

I used it for a few months, lost a few files and moved on to ext3 at the time. I think his press notoriety came soon after that.

"Of course Reiser's wife would go missing, have you seen how often things end up missing in his file systems?" used to be funny for a moment.

Yeah most major distros that used it (like OpenSuse) moved away before the murder case.

His wife was reported missing in September 2006. OpenSuse dumped it in October 2006. She wasn’t feared dead yet. He was arrested April 2008.

By the time he was even a suspect, his work had already been dropped because it was not reliable enough.

I agree that there is no ethics problem. The problem is in the realm of personal distaste.

There is also such a thing as lobbying for laws that make a lot of people's lives difficult, destroy QALYs, and possibly cause stochastic death.

It's only called "murder" when it's trivial to measure it, see.

The idea of “stochastic death” is a dangerous and unhelpful escalation of rhetoric that amounts to an excuse to call someone a murderer because they said something you disagree with. It’s the idea that Biden was somehow a “partial murderer” because he said something that might have, possibly, maybe, influenced a wacko to attempt an assassination on Trump. If we start calling everyone a type of murderer, it cheapens the word, dishonors the victims of actual murder, and hardens hearts with hate and fear of the dreaded Other when what the tribalists need most is a little mutual understanding.

Lobbying for laws is not murder, you are correct on that. Otherwise, I'm not sure what you're talking about.

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