Why IBM is Still Scary and Dangerous
Keep a distance from "Big Blue" Bully
A safe distance from IBM never hurt anybody. The company is not trustworthy. It is not a new problem.
IBM even betrays its own employees. Yesterday we wrote about the NDAs IBM compels them to sign (in order to control them even after they get sacked). "IBM's censorship via non-disparagement clauses / gag clauses in the severance contracts are invalid," an associate notes, "but the hard part will be for any single individual to stand up and tell them to go pound sand."
So who can be trusted in IBM? Nobody.
Red Hat whistleblowers tell us they hate IBM (yes, the word "hate" is used). They hate their paymaster. That alone is a signal of something; loyalty is nil.
IBM controls a lot of GNU, Linux, and other things. Like RAND and others, IBM remains mostly in the shadows, wielding software patents and lobbying for them. Even before IBM took over Red Hat or joined hands with Novell in the SCO litigation IBM was quite scary. I used to speak to some staff there and, as I reminded my father in a long conversation today, they tried hard to interfere with my journalism even 15+ years ago (to the point of phoning my home and speaking for over an hour).
The EPO's lawyers were very expensive but not potent. Microsoft's staff lawyering up against us was also incompetent and lacking credibility (just like the lawyers, who got sued by their own clients a few months ago [1, 2, 3]). But it is still IBM that scares me most and the intimidation against us seems to correlate with our coverage of accounting fraud - a very hype-sensitive subject at IBM, more so than the secretive layoffs.
From what I can gather, bullying against members of our community often comes from Red Hat (IBM) people - probably more often than from Microsoft - for instance when they question systemd, Wayland and so on.
The thing about IBM and its offshoots is, they have connections (hundreds of thousands of former staff in the private and public sector). IBM is eager to use those connection to harm, not to do good.
Don't trust IBM. The Free software community should be hesitant and highly reluctant to view IBM as an ally of convenience. Remember what IBM did with Microsoft after the formats war. They sort of colluded behind closed doors and IBM is no longer promoting OpenDocument Format (ODF). IBM nearly got sued over it. Many people in the community were very angry.
Nowadays, in many circumstances, IBM is nothing but a Microsoft partner/ally - same thing Novell became 20 years ago. █