Bonum Certa Men Certa

IBM is Not a Community



Summary: Fedora as a project and as a community (this initiative's roots at Red Hat) is in peril; for IBM to turn things around it'll need to show that it really views GNU/Linux developers/users (unaffiliated with corporations) as more than just cost-free labour

THE misuse of the term "community" is closely connected to the emergence of "openwashing" -- i.e. pretending proprietary is "open" or "transparent" and corporations are some kind of charities working for the public good. We've seen lots of examples of that over the past two years in particular. OSI has been taken over by this agenda.



"To properly judge IBM's position on software freedom (or human rights), one must assess both the past and the present (which, unlike the future, aren't an uncertainty)."In IBM's case, there's lots of "for Good" or "4Good"; there's also "embRACE" (trying to rewrite IBM's record on issues of race), "openPOWER" (openwashing) and manufactured "geek" cred.

To properly judge IBM's position on software freedom (or human rights), one must assess both the past and the present (which, unlike the future, aren't an uncertainty). One must go deeper than shallow things like the gender of the last CEO and race of the current one. IBM isn't as 'woke' as it wants people to think; working hard to eliminate particular metaphors isn't as commendable as these people wish for us to believe.

Recently, much attention was paid to the CentOS betrayal. We saw about dozen videos and close to 100 articles about this one subject alone (throughout December) and few writers brought up Fedora, asking the tough questions about the future of the project.

Quick! Teach me how to monetise the volunteers!



I'm an early adopter (at work) of Fedora (back when it was "Fedora Core") and Red Hat was the first GNU/Linux distribution I used. With that in mind, it saddens me to see what IBM has done to Red Hat this past year. In the video above I go through only some of the many aspects we've been covering throughout the year.

CentOS users; Gateway drugMore on the CentOS issue can be found in this older video. There are also some articles about this subject, e.g.:



Seeing the sorts of attitudinal changes at Red Hat (directed by IBM now), we're not exactly optimistic. In the video above I focus on Fedora and why I believe 2021 will be a tough year for Fedora.

Links from the video:

Recent Techrights' Posts

Hiring for Tech Roles Based on Perceived Loyalty is No Better Than Hiring to Meet Diversity Quotas
What we're seeing right now is a national security disaster and it is almost purely about technology
S.E.O. SPAM by Serial Sloppers With L.L.M. Garbage is Hurting Linux
We continue to run Slopwatch
IBM Says That Half of Its "Assets" is Basically Pure Fiction ("Goodwill")
It times get tough, IBM can sell "Goodwill" at the local pawn shop and pay back the lenders, right?
 
Links 02/02/2025: Union-Busting and Censorship by Executions
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/02/2025: Limits Pushing, Free Software Absolutism, and Why Gemini Matters
Links for the day
Slopwatch: BetaNews and linuxsecurity.com Have Just Published More Fake 'Articles' About "Linux"
There's probably more "Linux" slop out there, but we do our best to identify it on a daily basis
Richard Stallman Has Another Talk in India Tomorrow, at Least Fourth India Talks in Recent Days
In the past month he has given at least half a dozen talks
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, February 01, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, February 01, 2025
Links 01/02/2025: Chinese and American Censorship, Cloud-[sic]Native Targeted by Software Patents
Links for the day
Links 01/02/2025: Belated Happy New Year 2025 and Gabbro 0.1.2
Links for the day
Links 01/02/2025: Administrative Chaos and Aviation Disasters Persist
Links for the day
Arrested: Albanian Outreachy whistleblowers, Sonny Piers GNOME & Debian connections
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 1/2/2025: LLM Hype Revisited, Linuxwashing by Oumi
Links for the day
Growing Evidence That the Patent Industry Has Become a Major Scam
Seeing that the patent "industry" has turned to serious crimes (sometimes to cover up corruption) and seeing that the net negative is clearer for all to see, people who argue for abolition of all patents will have a field day
Planet Ubuntu Overrun by LLM Slop? Faizul "Piju" 9M2PJU Seems to be Publishing Fake Articles About "Linux"...
Maybe it is "assisted" by LLM slop, but slop is slop and it introduces many problems
Gemini Links 01/02/2025: LLMs, Analog Computer, and BorgBackup
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, January 31, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, January 31, 2025
Links 31/01/2025: Mass Layoffs at Amazon and Microsoft, Sweden Again Fails to Protect Critics of Violence
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux" and More (Latest Roundup Featuring BetaNews, Janus Atienza, and Brittany Day From Guardian Digital, Inc)
LLM slop season
Microsoft Staff Explains How Microsoft Swindled Employees and Avoided Paying Out Severance Pay (Microsoft Hasn't Much Money Left in the Bank)
This is a classic way to avoid paying workers
"Not one of us" by Dr. Andy Farnell
Elon Musk has brought embarrassment to nerds and technologists
Gemini Links 31/01/2025: "Bulletin Buble" and "Why Blog?"
Links for the day
Static Site Generators (SSGs) Pay Off: Vastly Faster Sites, Much Smaller Hosting Bills
success story for SSGs
Of Note: Linux Foundation Has Already Let Linux.com Rot for About 4 Months (No Activity)
there's no campaign aside from marketing spam there
Techrights Should be Even Faster Now
We're now better off
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, January 30, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, January 30, 2025
Richard Stallman (RMS) Gave 3 Talks in India in Less Than a Week
In India this month we've not seen a single negative comment about RMS
Indian Data Biases statCounter For or Against "Linux"
In statCounter, the GNU/Linux increases and decreases are deeply tied to what it does with data collected in India
The Corporate Media Pretends That Facebook ("Meta") Has Performed Well, But Its Debt Doubles Every 2 Years Despite Mass Layoffs
That same media also helps parrot misleading financial claims
Microsoft's Debt Surged by More Than 6,000,000,000 Dollars in Just 3 Months
numbers released hours ago
The Sheer Irony of Microsoft Proxy Accusing Others of 'Stealing'
Wherever DeepSick's data came from, Microsoft (or its proxy) is in no position to issue criticism.
The Difference a Decade (and GAFAM Money) Makes
Credibility cannot be purchased
[Meme] The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has Critics Because Its Message is Effective
Applying to others the same standards one is willing to violate?