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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Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
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Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, February 08, 2026: IRC logs for Sunday, February 08, 2026
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Links 08/02/2026: Microsoft GitHub as Burden on Developers and "The Chomsky Epstein Files": Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/02/2026: "Doing Not Much Tweaking" and "Reclaiming Digital Agency": Links for the day
Forbes: BitCoin, Cryptocurrency pages removed from investment database, links stop working: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Bitcoin warning followed immediately by network outage: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Money Funneled to Protection of Software Freedom, But Nothing Really Lost: Crossposted from personal site
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Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, February 07, 2026: IRC logs for Saturday, February 07, 2026
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The Chaos Theory

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