The Chaos Theory

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2021-05-09 12:13:03 UTC
Modified: 2021-05-09 12:18:48 UTC

CentOS users rushing to Rocky/Alma
Keep users running around in a panic until they settle on IBM subscriptions?

Summary: Making GNU/Linux less stable and less predictable isn't good for GNU/Linux users; but it certainly helps sell Red Hat support contracts and vexation inside the community weakens Red Hat's competitors

IN the context of mathematics, what we're dealing with is a high level of uncertainty or lack of predictability (animation shown to the right, having been 'stolen' from Wikipedia). IBM pioneered the FUD tactics, then to be adopted by Microsoft, the "love child" of IBM. They're still not done, they just make slight adaptations/refinements as their FUD tactics evolve somewhat... they're readjusting as they rally a mob of misled people.

Double compound pendulum Earlier this year (just before the cancel mob had a go at RMS yet again) we explained what IBM was doing to community-led distributions. Distro developers reach out and tell us about it. This morning I spoke to one distro developer who said "some have retracted their signature from the RMS open letter due to their revision of it [and] I am considering doing so as well..." (it has not been updated in 12 days now; last update 12 days ago).

"I used to love what IBM did for us, especially back in the days of the OOXML/ODF battles."As we explained numerous times before, IBM (et al) sought to destabilise the Free software community and it sort of backfired in a major way. Instead it destabilised IBM, which sees Red Hat engineers fleeing (IBM is anxious about people pointing that out). The brand of IBM is losing lustre. Developers no longer feel comfortable about Red Hat stuff, either. As one developer told us, regarding the Linux Foundation (LF) in particular: "IBM mostly gives money to LF so that they can try to buy their projects into LF initiatives [...] IBM shows up and tries to cram their [expletive] and it gets rebuffed because nobody wants it [...] so really, IBM is spending money and still losing [...] IBM ruining GNU/Linux with systemd and other [expletive] being a big one..."

I used to love what IBM did for us, especially back in the days of the OOXML/ODF battles. But the tide is turning when IBM starts laying off GNU/Linux developers and attacking/defaming the founder of the operating system. IBM isn't in good hands anymore (Palmisano was the end of that rosy era) and Red Hat is flailing by driving away its largest userbase (CentOS) or community of volunteers/contributors (Fedora). Who will be left to package stuff and report bugs? ⬆

Move fast and break things; systemd release every 8 weeks
Hurry up and break things

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SLAPP Censorship - Part 32 Out of 200: Garrett Made Spurious Requests (Later Withdrawn) the Same Week Someone He Later Spoke to by E-mail Sent Threats to Our Webhost: The "plot thickens" because there's a multi-party tag-team act, as confirmed by Garrett after he had sworn on the Bible
IBM is a Dying Company, Nowadays It Kills Red Hat With Slop: when your last day is a national holiday in IBM's country
"Independence Drives" and Community-Run Sites: Independence in reporting is a much-valued trait
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What Apple Fans Are Missing: Apple is a bad company
The "Pale Blue Dot" Moment Had Returned: To many people, the "bitter-sweet" observation of how small we are
Saudi Arabia Does Not Rely Much on Microsoft/Windows: Putting aside politics, this is good for Free software
Almost 12 Years of Exposing Corruption in Europe's Second-Largest Institution: The "unready" President is now an abandoned President
Easter Moon Mission and Its Reminder of IBM's Demise: A lot of NASA operations now rely on GNU/Linux
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Don't Totally Dismiss the 'Survivalists': 'Survivalists' or similar terms are used to describe a particular mindset of people who prepare for some really awful scenarios
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 02, 2026: IRC logs for Thursday, April 02, 2026
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Hoping for Peace: There are still many things to be enjoyed, including nature and kind people
Gemini Links 03/04/2026: "Slide Rule Triple Multiplication" and End of "Picture Pages": Links for the day
Rumours of Microsoft Layoffs This Season: Just how much trouble is Microsoft in at this point?
SLAPP Censorship - Part 31 Out of 200: Speaking About 20+ Years of Alleged Harassment/Defamation and High-Profile 'Targets' of Garrett: attempts were made to settle (in effect end the case) by the person who started the case almost half a dozen times along the way
In Asia, Windows is in Its Teens (Below 20%): On a global scale, Windows is down to about 26%
Low Morale at IBM and Perception of Destructive Management: IBM is going nowhere, fast
Gemini Links 02/04/2026: Super Mario Galaxy Movie and New Antenna Instance: Links for the day
It Seems Like Google News Cracked Down on (Omitted, Delisted) a Lot of Slopfarms: There's no justification/point in spending so much energy just to plagiarise things poorly
Steam Survey for Last Month Says 5.33% Use GNU/Linux: big leap for GNU/Linux
Links 02/04/2026: Science News, Energy Scarcity, Oil Sold in Yuan: Links for the day
Links 02/04/2026: Apple Turns 50, Efforts To Ban VPNs: Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/04/2026: Kubernetes With FreeBSD, OFFLFIRSOCH, and Great Circle Distance: Links for the day
Dr. Andy Farnell on Microsoft Silencing or Deplatforming Opposition in the UK and Elsewhere: Microsoft as a king or a kind of "religion" one cannot question
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 01, 2026: IRC logs for Wednesday, April 01, 2026
SLAPP Censorship - Part 30 Out of 200: The Time We Reported Abuse to Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and It Was Escalated to Its Cybercrime Unit: he started trolling and harassing me for criticising his employers' monopolistic and users-hostile agenda
'Modern' Cars Not a Rosy Industry: The current "modern" cars already have a shelf life similar to that of many toothpastes
Wrongthink Detector and Filter in "Think About the Children" Clothing: It is not about "age verification", it's a Trojan horse for social control
IBM Facilities Now Deemed Legitimate (Military) Target, Along With GAFAM Bases: Does IBM have any defences in place to protect against "downtime by explosions"?
What Happens When Some Large News Sites Turn to Slop and Spew Out Nonsense: LLM slop makes such grotesque mistakes abundant
Hardly Seeing Slopfarms Today, Even in Google News: Google's adventures with slop increased its debt significantly
Links 01/04/2026: Quantum Hype (Turing and Google), "US Fuel Prices Surge Past $4 a Gallon": Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/04/2026: "Sacred Week of Cycling" and Zenity for Scripts: Links for the day
Losing Debian: Sruthi Chandran election flop: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
French judgment: parasitisme by FSFE & Matthias Kirschner (CO23.002709): Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Microsoft Uses April Fools to 'Joke' About Inserting "Age Verification" (Surveillance) Into Linux: MinceR says the "lkml [message/page] one is April Fools or at least they're trying to pass it off as April Fools [however] the [GitHub] one was archived on the 8th and yesterday, so that probably isn't..."
IBM "Headcount Reductions" by Early Retirement and Death: The tragedy at IBM started 33 years ago on the first of April
Red Hat: Latin-1 character set under threat from Bishop Michael Martin, North Carolina: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 01/04/2026: Microsoft GitHub Now Pushing Ads Into People's Code/Commits, Earth Overshoot Day Draws Nearer: Links for the day
What IBM and EPO Workers Have in Common: European Media Not Covering Very Major News (Press Became Dysfunctional): Are IBM operatives working to scuttle the process of investigative journalism?
Free Speech in the United Kingdom When "Chilling Effect" is Increasingly Prevalent: If politicians cannot even use a term like "parasitic behaviour", then where do we as a society end up?
Oracle Lays Off Because of Debt and Commercial Issues, Not Slop: Like Scam Altman, Larry Ellison hangs around Cheeto King because he could use some bailouts in the form of government contracts or phony money with an incredible name like "Stargate"
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Gemini Links 01/04/2026: Hallucinations, Stitching, and Type Systems: Links for the day
Lots of Layoffs at IBM, "Media Blackout" About Mass Layoffs at IBM's HashiCorp and Confluent Last Month: IBM is a dying company circling down the drain while manipulating or paying the media to pretend everything is fine
Microsoft Under Investigation by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for Abusive Tactics: What's noteworthy is that this is "set to begin in May"
Sounds Like Red Hat (IBM) Layoffs in Slop Clothing: This is an IBM policy. They try to justify staff cuts.
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 31, 2026: IRC logs for Tuesday, March 31, 2026

The Chaos Theory

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