[Pan-users] Re: updated info

[Petr Kovar]

Duncan, Thu, 5 Aug 2010 22:53:14 +0000 (UTC):

(...)

> (FWIW, I use reiserfs and likely will continue to until btrfs stabilizes, 
> and did have in mind all the work put into that, despite the unfortunate 
> situation it's in with its namesake being a convicted murderer of his 
> former wife -- talk about abuse.  And I respect all the continued work 
> Eduard S. (IIRC that's correct) and his team has put into reiser4 despite 
> all the unfortunates.  But it's true I don't really know the extent of 
> Eastern bloc participation in other FLOSS projects at this point.)

You can take a look, e.g., at various Planet aggregators and see that there
are many contributors (either volunteers or employees) from Eastern Europe
actually.

It wasn't so back in the 90's, yes. Needless to say that in the late 80's,
the Western bloc countries were a decade ahead of the Soviet bloc in
computer science and technology.

> BTW, is "Eastern bloc" still acceptable, or does it bring up histories 
> better left in the past, etc, as well?  Is there a more acceptable term, 
> from the viewpoint of folks actually there?

Well, "Eastern bloc" is nothing but a historical term for more than 20
years now. People from the Western countries often refer to the said region
as "Eastern Europe", but for people of the former Eastern bloc living in
Central Europe, geographically speaking, this may be seen as undeserved.
Especially Poles and Czechs don't like to be counted in the same
(geopolitical, cultural) group as Russians or Ukrainians.

You see, there are still many national animosities here in Europe.

Best,
Petr Kovar