Bonum Certa Men Certa

IBM and the War (on General-Purpose Computing)

Video download link | md5sum b02c1ae0c220f3f9ac2c852f65e11846 IBM Learns That Some People Do Use Older PCs Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: IBM keeps engineering its own blunders (own goals); in the latest example of it, which is rather revealing, IBM considers suspending the misguided plan to abolish BIOS support or assigning the task to a new special interest group (SIG)

IBM's Fedora 'project' (formerly known as community, back when Red Hat was more tactfully running it) is going to learn the hard way that working against the community leads to backlash. Each such backlash erodes the project's brand/image and therefore puts off existing users or potential (future, prospective) adopters. Why does IBM fail to understand these very basic things? Can it not grasp what it bought?



Judging by weekly numbers that are shared in official Fedora sites, the project already struggles. Not much is left except IBM staff. And many are leaving (the company, not just the project). IBM's takeover has already done a lot of damage; does IBM's leadership even care? How many IBM managers even use the platform? It's hard to 'monetise' some platform if you constantly piss off not only its users but also its developers.

"Let's hope that strong pressure from users of GNU/Linux will compel IBM to move away from its planned obsolescence agenda."The latest backlash, which we too participated in, has led to this face-saving action. It's a "we need to talk" moment. IBM's Matthew Miller says: "It'll obviously be difficult to find a time where _everyone_ can participate, so this wouldn't be a deciding-things meeting, rather a "talking about possibilities and hopefully coming to more mutual understanding" meeting. And I would make sure there are good notes." Many of the replies there are from other IBM employees. IBM's Ben Cotton wrote about it in his blog some days ago.

They've still not apologised for (mis)using lawyers to silence a Fedora volunteer, who earned many badges from Fedora before getting treated like trash. Over the past few years IBM banished quite a few longtime volunteers. Some of them used to speak out against companies like NVIDIA (how "unprofessional"), but apparently only IBM staff is authorised to criticise companies. Miller et al enjoy selective enforcement. This sort of Hubris will, in due course, alienate contributors.

So anyway, IBM may be backtracking on its attack on BIOS. As our associate put it, "the attacks on the BIOS, Restricted Boot, TPM, and Pluton are all hammering the nails in the coffin of general-purpose computing. In Apple there are the M1 and M2 chips doing the same."

"If IBM is trying to piss off both corporations (many used and invested in CentOS) and people, then it's doing a spectacular job."Let's hope that strong pressure from users of GNU/Linux will compel IBM to move away from its planned obsolescence agenda. IBM pays the Linux Foundation for greenwashing campaigns, which are inherently incompatible with planned obsolescence. As someone in LXer put it 11 days ago: "We dropped Fedora because it's not as good as Tumbleweed. Anyway, do the work. Many of the advantages are grossly overstated btw (if not just plain misleading). Just stop it. You know? Fedora, creating landfill... for the good of the planet."

"This is a kid's joke after CentOS 8.x support ( new face of RH ) was aborted," said the following comment.

If IBM is trying to piss off both corporations (many used and invested in CentOS) and people, then it's doing a spectacular job.

IBM ought to hire someone (or someones) that can understand the Free software community and advise the managers accordingly. All these blunders contribute to bad karma.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Pushers of systemd Rewrite History (Richard Stallman Said UNIX "Was Portable and Seemed Fairly Clean")
Unlike systemd
Trajectory of The Register: From News Site/s Into "B2B"... and Into Microsoft Salespeople
Something isn't right at The Register
Doing My Share to Tackle Online Slop and SPAM
Trying my best to 'fix' the Web
 
Links 27/07/2025: FSF Hackathon and "Hulk Hogan Was a Very Bad Man"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/07/2025: DAW Mixer Chains and Simple Software
Links for the day
The Register MS is Inventing or Giving Air Time to New Conspiracy Theories so as to Distort the Narrative As High-Profile Agencies Fall Prey to Microsoft Holes
But the problem is holes, i.e. Microsoft making bad products; the problem is Microsoft
When You Tell You It's Free, Does That Mean No Charges (If So, Who's Paying and Why)?
there's "no free lunch"
Most Editors at The Register Are American, Including the Editor in Chief, a Decade-Long Microsoft Stenographer (Writing Prose to Sell Microsoft)
It's not easy to tell where the site is based (we tried) because it's hiding behind ClownFlare and CrimeFlare hasn't been well lately
"New Techrights" Soon Turns 2 (A Few Days Before the FSF Turns 40)
We have a lot more to say about LLM bots
When Silence Says So Much
Garrett, a 'secure' boot pusher, will need to defend himself in the UK High Court
The Register in Trouble
There is not much that can be done at this point
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 26, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 26, 2025
Misinformation in Social Control Media
Social control media passes around all sorts of tropes
Slopwatch: Fake Linux 'Articles' and Slopfarms With "Linux" in Their Names/Domains
throwing bots at "Linux" to make some fake articles
Links 26/07/2025: Amazon Shutdown in China, Russian Economy Slows
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: History of Time (1988) and Gemini Games
Links for the day
Links 26/07/2025: 50 Percent Tariffs in Amazon, Dying Intel Offloads Network and Edge Group (NEX)
Links for the day
Blaming Programming Languages for Users' and Developers' Bad Practices
That's like blaming cars for drivers who crash into things
Slopwatch: Fakes, FUD, Duplicates, and Charlatans Galore
The Web as we once know it is collapsing. Some opportunists try to replace it with low-quality slop.
The Register UK Seems to Have Become American and Management is Changing (Microsofter as Editor in Chief)
The Register 'UK' is now controlled by the Directions on Microsoft guy
Many People Still Read Techrights Because It Says the Truth, Produces Evidence, and Does Not Self-Censor
Unlike so many other sites
The Register is Desperate for Money, According to The Register
I decided to check how they're doing as a business
Microsoft Finally Finds a Use Case for Slop?
Create low-quality chaff to shift the media's attention?
Microsoft Windows Lost 400 Million Users in a Few Years, Why Does The Register Double Down on Windows With New US Editor?
days ago they hired a new US editor
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 25, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 25, 2025
For Libel Reform One Must First Bring (or Raise) Awareness to the Issues and Their Magnitude
I myself know, from personal experience
Links 26/07/2025: Rationed Meals in the US and TikTok Repels Investments (Too Toxic)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: "Bloody Google" and New People in Geminispace
Links for the day
Response to Solderpunk (Father of Gemini Protocol) About the Gemini Community
Solderpunk responds to non-sequitur
HTML and the Web Used to be Something a Child Could Learn, "Modern" Web is a Puzzle of Frameworks, Bloat, and Worse
When the Web was more like Gemini Protocol
New US Editor in The Register is 84% Microsoft/Windows Booster
It'll be worrying if it carries on like this
Links 25/07/2025: Slop Blunders and China Has Code of Conduct for Lawmakers in HK
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/07/2025: Some Books and Babies and Capital
Links for the day
Links 25/07/2025: NOAA Cuts Endanger Lives, "Europe's Self Inflicted Cloud Crisis"
Links for the day
They Try to Lecture Us on Ethics
They even removed "master" from Microsoft GitHub
The Future of the Web is One Rendering Engine or 'Flavours' of Chrome
The future of the Web does not look bright at all
Best Sites Are Not Optimised for Any Browser, They Work Equally Well With All of Them
Red Hat (IBM) is making rubbish sites
YouTube is a Spamfarm, Slopfarm, and Clickfarm (a Lot of Numbers There Are Fake)
Those who don't fake look unpopular and unimportant
We Don't Do JavaScript and Pages Are Small
Thankfully Gemini Protocol has nothing like JavaScript
'Tech' is Not Technology
Some people use terms like 'Old Tech'
IBM's Debt Rose by Almost 10 Billion Dollars in the Past 6 Months Alone
The "hey hi" circus is coming to an end
Yes, Master
Gaslighting by actual racists
Microsoft Bribes and Buys Politicians to Tell Europe What to Do About Free Software (Which It's Attacking)
Microsoft: we speak for the thing that we are attacking! Follow the money...
Making Backups Quickly and Reliably
Backups are imperative, more so in an age of uncertainty, unpredictable weather, and worsening standards (quality of products going down while prices go up)
Techrights Investigation: Estimating the Point in Time LinuxIac Turned Into LLM Slop (Part of the Time)
Bobby Borisov got lazy
10th Month, Ten Weeks From Now, at Ten AM
In Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 24, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 24, 2025
A Nadella Memo Distracts From Microsoft's Cheapening Of the Workforce
Right now the "MSM" (mainstream media) is flooded/overwhelmed by garbage pieces that relay lies for Nadella
Vanishing Faces of GNU/Linux
Free software projects do not depend on any one person or company to still exist
Microsoft Says It Lost 400 Million Windows Users, Now It's Waiting for GNU/Linux to Stop Booting on 'Old' PCs
When it comes to Windows, Microsoft is fully aware of the issue and statements it made earlier this summer suggest it lost 400 million Windows users
Slopwatch: LinuxTechLab, linuxsecurity.com, LinuxIac, and More
Also: The Register's Microsoft agenda (new editor)
Gemini Links 25/07/2025: Gemtext Aware Titan Editor and Gemini Protocol Comeback
Links for the day