Geek of the Month: Hans Reiser

For this April’s “Geek of the Month”, we will give tribute to one of the most controversial free software developer in history. His name is Hans Reiser, and he made headlines just recently.

On April 28, 2008 Hans Reiser was found guilty of first-degree murder after his wife’s disappearance. He faces a sentence of 25 years to life in prison. But who is Hans Reiser? Why is he that important?

To answer those questions, read this concise summary about his life:

Hans Reiser was born to Ramon Reiser and Beverly Palmer in December 1963. He grew up in California and dropped out of his junior high school before he was 14, citing disagreements with the conventional schooling system. He was accepted at the University of California, Berkeley at the age of 15 where he received a BA in Systematizing (an individualized major dealing with physics, math and related topics). Reiser was also one of the founding members of the Open Computing Facility at UC Berkeley. Though preferring higher education, Reiser chose not to pursue a Ph.D., citing the same reasons he had dropped out of junior high school. He was therefore unable to pursue a further career in academia and worked part to full time in the computer field while founding and building the California-based international software company Namesys Inc. Prior to founding Namesys, Reiser held positions at Synopsys, IBM Research, Premos and ARDC.

In 1999, while working in Russia, Hans Reiser met and married Nina Sharanova, a Russian-born and trained obstetrician and gynecologist who was studying to become an American licensed OB/GYN. They had two children.

The Reisers separated in May 2004. Nina Reiser filed for divorce three months later, citing irreconcilable differences and saying that their children “hardly know their father” because he was out of the country on business for most of the year, according to court records, and was granted sole legal custody of the children and shared physical custody of them with her husband. The divorce was never finalized. Nina Reiser obtained a temporary restraining order against Hans in December 2004 after he allegedly pushed her, at the height of the divorce proceedings. She dropped the temporary restraining order in late 2005 because the heat of the divorce had chilled over time. In exchange, Hans Reiser agreed to be bound by a one year civil restraining order which prohibited him from “contacting, harassing or disturbing the peace” of Nina Reiser at her home or place of work and ordered him to stay at least 100 yards away from her. In May, Nina Reiser alleged in court filings that her husband had failed to pay 50 percent medical expenses and childcare expenses as ordered by a judge.

Nina Reiser’s Disappearance:
Nina Reiser was reported missing on September 5, 2006. She had last been seen on September 3, when she dropped the couple’s two children off with Hans, at his mother's house where he was living at the time. She also failed to meet her best friend at her house later that evening.

Nina Reiser's 2001 Honda Odyssey minivan, with groceries inside, was found on September 9 on Fernwood Drive in Oakland's Montclair district, just east of the CA-13 Warren Freeway. It was reported by police that neighbors first spotted the parked minivan on September 5, the day she was supposed to pick up her children at school.

Hans Reiser's neighbors said that they saw him spraying water off something in the driveway for half an hour shortly after Nina went missing and said that his car — a 1988 Honda CRX Si hatchback — disappeared shortly after, and his mother rented a car so Hans could drive hers. Police brought cadaver dogs in to search his property, but no human remains were found.

Following Nina Reiser’s disappearance, which resulted in the removal of the Reiser children from the Reiser family, Hans Reiser attempted to obtain custody but was unsuccessful. Oakland police, who generally do not testify in juvenile court custody cases, testified against Hans Reiser at the custody hearing, though they did not reveal the evidence on which they based their concerns.

In September 2006, Oakland police briefly detained Hans Reiser, served him with a search warrant on his person, and obtained a DNA sample.

On October 10, 2006, following the second search of his home (in which Oakland police and FBI investigators removed a number of items), police announced that they were now treating the disappearance as a homicide case, and Reiser was arrested for the murder of Nina Reiser and subsequently charged.

Following his arrest, a number of people in the Free Software community expressed concern over the future of Reiser's filesystem (ReiserFS). For example, a Slashdot thread on the subject of his arrest garnered over 1,600 comments, significant numbers of which discussed the future of the filesystem. However, the employees of Namesys have said that they will continue to work and that Reiser's arrest doesn't slow down the software development in the immediate future. They confirmed that if the case expands over a longer time, they would seek solutions to ensure the long-term future of Namesys. In order to afford increasing legal fees, it was announced on December 21, 2006 that Hans Reiser was going to sell his company. As of 2008, Namesys has not been sold.

Media and blog reactions after Hans Reiser was convicted:
CNN:
Programmer guilty of wife's murder

ZDNet:
Reiser found guilty of first degree murder

ars technica:
Hans Reiser is fscked: jury delivers guilty verdict

Practical Technology:
Was Reiser really found Guilty of being a Hacker?

San Francisco Chronicle:
Reiser juror: "Never showed sympathy" for Nina

Tech Source From Bohol:

If you ask my opinion about the guilty verdict, I would say that it was a bit harsh on Hans Reiser’s part because as what I have known, the evidence was weak and Nina’s body have not been found. But, in fairness to Nina’s family and her children, I hope the verdict will finally give them peace of mind and somehow help heal the wounds caused by these unfortunate consequences.