Bonum Certa Men Certa

IBM Cannot Possibly Recover by Attacking the Software Community and Alienating Geeks

Video download link | md5sum 4f3d350031f416754e17a6c0008e4bf5



Summary: IBM is in a really bad state, even if the media fails to report on the matter; the video above (and post below, composed afterwards to accompany the video) takes stock of recent developments and what they mean to the future of the decreasingly "big" blue

The poor if not utterly appalling attitude of IBM, an arrogant strategy which wrongly assumes that IBM is "too big to fail", is definitely going to fail IBM; many people already leave in droves (an exodus, never mind the layoffs), making recovery or rebound improbable and maybe infeasible.



"Isn't it funny that the same companies which are working hard to ban/remove the word "master" are themselves treating people -- even volunteers -- like slaves (with masters being those conceited, self-righteous companies)?"Last week we wrote about Fedora blacklisting Persians; several other people have pointed out the same thing, albeit in harsher terms than ours (comparing Fedora/IBM to Hitler, which means suppressed IBM truths). As a matter of policy, Techrights cannot recommend GNU/Linux distros from IBM anymore; RHEL 8-based distros/clones are OK and the same is true for Arch Linux, Debian, Gentoo etc. (not Ubuntu though) because those who master the distros matter more than the underlying technical details. Isn't it funny that the same companies which are working hard to ban/remove the word "master" are themselves treating people -- even volunteers -- like slaves (with masters being those conceited, self-righteous companies*)?

This morning we published "5 Months Later People Still Remove Their Names From the Slanderous Anti-RMS Petition, Managed by IBM Staff" (related to "IBM is NOT a Friend of Free Software"). We've added this to examples of IBM "Attacking Communities/Volunteers" examples (see our IBM wiki). It's mostly visual with names occluded (it's nothing personal!) because the paymaster is what matters. A lot of people do what they're told by their bosses because they want to pay the bills (or a massive mortgage they should never have taken in the first place).

"The severe issues associated with staff morale cannot be overcome; it's years too late already and the attacks on the founder of GNU/Linux are going to make it very difficult to hire geeks."Today we discuss the defamatory letter crafted more than 5 months ago by IBM-funded front groups that still want to weaken the Free Software Foundation by taking away its founder and its copyrights (GNU Project copyright assignments) because IBM -- unlike Red Hat -- does not seem to understand how copyleft works (which would help explain the self-harming decision to abandon CentOS users). Based on what IBM and insiders write anonymously online, IBM has no future, only lots more layoffs. It has a very severe staff retention crisis and it is unable to recruit the necessary talent. IBM, once the sole giant of computing, is now worth less than AMD and SAP; it's trying to split the company to manufacture an illusion of growth (profitability has been down by about 50% in the past half a decade alone), but that's just classic 'creative accounting' (shuffling the buckets -- same thing Microsoft does). The severe issues associated with staff morale cannot be overcome; it's years too late already and the attacks on the founder of GNU/Linux are going to make it very difficult to hire geeks. Yes, geeks aren't stupid and many view those attacks as collective.

In the video we walk through some recent discussions about the company (mostly existing and former staff in thelayoff.com) since the media is failing to report on these things. It's too busy looking for corporate sponsors instead of covering corporate abuse, including deception. Due to the scale of IBM (historically), there are still loads of "ex-IBM" folks out there; some of them worry about their IBM pensions and remember fondly some of the things IBM did actually invent (mostly hardware). But that IBM is long gone and now it's mostly a financial manipulation instrument in service of managers and grifters, not engineers. IBM's President Jim Whitehurst left the company and went back to his home state; he could see the writings on the wall...

"The attack on Stallman came less than a year later, coinciding with a Bill Gates scandal at MIT (he, unlike Stallman, was actually very closely connected to Jeffrey Epstein)."For quite some time now IBM has been trying to privatise GNU and Linux so as to make volunteers' hard work their own monopoly (of course they will fail, but they still try!). Microsoft has been trying the same when it bought GitHub. One source of ours has insinuated for more than a couple of years that the attacks which led to Torvalds' removal from his own project (to see therapists) was caused by IBM-connected media and this was likely motivated by an effort to reduce the buying price of Red Hat (the time of those two events was almost the same; there was overlap), but the source was unable to verify this with 'smoking gun'-type evidence. The attack on Richard Stallman came less than a year later, coinciding with a Bill Gates scandal at MIT (he, unlike Stallman, was actually very closely connected to Jeffrey Epstein). _____ * ZDNet, which kept telling us "master" as a word is offensive, published "Master" in its headline only moments ago (very first word in the headline). They keep putting their hypocrisy and double standards up on display.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Generation Chaff - Phase V: Censorship of Dissent (Painted as Harassment or Terrorism)
Censorship is all around us now
Generation Chaff - Phase IV: Apps Only Few Companies Decide On
Tools are being collectively confiscated, under the premise or false prospect of "security"
Why We Support Richard Stallman and You Probably Should Too
It's not about being "Richard Stallman fan", it is about maintaining the right to hold positions (on technology) like his
Some Large German Media Covers Richard Stallman's Talks in Germany Earlier This Week
LLM-based chatbots are just "bullshit generators" (as he has long called them)
Trouble in Red Hat/IBM and a Retreat to Ponzi Economics in Search of Wall Street Market Heist
Would you invest your life savings in this kind of crap?
Who Asked Software in the Public Interest (SPI) for a Refund? ($100,000, Resulting in Losses of $267,201 in 12 Months, Highest-Ever Losses)
The IRS does not reveal who or what's tied to this refund (or the cause/reason)
 
Coping With the Site Going More Mainstream
Fame is no laughing matter
They Never 'Put Down' Corporations
There are "pests" that are traded in Wall Street
21 Pages in Less Than 7 Hours is No Joking Matter
We've become a lot more effective and efficient
Correct Information is a Valued Asset in the Age of Slopfarms and Public Relations (PR) or Spin
Publishing suppressed facts is never easy
The Register MS Continues to Bag Money to Promote a Ponzi Scheme, Even Money From China
Today in the front page
analytics.usa.gov: The Only Supported Version of Windows (This Past Week) is Only Used by About 13.9% of People in the US, the Home Base of Windows
Even Vista 7 is still used more
Rust is Very Secure
If only Rust itself is secure
Who Will be Held Accountable for Breaking Ubuntu by Imposing Rust on Otherwise-Functional Programs, in Effect Replacing GNU With Proprietary Microsoft (GitHub)?
they're practical people who merely point out that a bunch of buffoons not only ruin Ubuntu but also every future distro based on Ubuntu
Generation Chaff - Phase VIII: In Summary
Like "Science" with a capital "S", what we see here commercial interests usurping everything
Generation Chaff - Phase VII: Curtailing Alternative Media
There was always an obligation - a collective duty of sorts - to uphold independent journalism
Generation Chaff - Phase VI: Centralisation of Information (X, Cheetok/Fentanylware)
Would you trust information when controlled by such people?
Generation Chaff - Phase III: Slop and Plagiarism
A lot of the current so-called 'economy' is built upon false valuations
Generation Chaff - Phase II: "Cloud", Blockchains and Other Hype
For those of us who turned down those propositions there was a struggle; we needed to justify not having skinnerboxes or "social" accounts in some site run by a private company
Generation Chaff - Phase I: Social Control Media
IRC predates the Web
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 23, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 23, 2025
More Clues Shed on Collapse of Microsoft XBox
XBox is basically circling down the drain as Microsoft implements 2-3 waves of layoffs each month
'Vibe Coding' Doesn't Work
In a lot of ways, so-called 'Vibe Coding' is already considered vapourware or a passing fad promoted in the media by managers who try to justify mass layoffs, especially ridding companies of "very expensive" software engineers
Links 24/10/2025: Microsoft's Killing of XBox Connected to Revenue/Profit Problems, "How Elon Musk Ruined Twitter"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/10/2025: 86,400 Seconds and "Society's Task"
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Google News and Slopfarms That Relay Nonsense From LLMs
Google News, which once prioritised or used to care about provenance and quality, is feeding slopfarms
Links 23/10/2025: More Health Concerns Over Dumb Chatbots (LLMs) and "Talking Cars" as Latest Buzz
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/10/2025: Daylight Savings Time and Duration Shorthand
Links for the day
Links 23/10/2025: LLM 'Hallucinations' (Defects) in Practical Code 'Generation', China Becomes More Economically and Technologically Independent
Links for the day
Linux Foundation Uses LLM Slop to Promote Microsoft in Linux.com (Again), Rendering It a Linux-Hostile Slopfarm
Openwashing with slop by "Linux.com Editorial Staff", which basically seems to be a bot
Links 23/10/2025: Windows TCO Galore and "The Internet Is Going to Break Again"
Links for the day
Social engineering attack: Debian voted to trick you on binary blobs
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Techrights Will Always Stand for Women's Rights
We even invest money - personal savings that it - in our principles
Certified Lawyers Should Know Better (Than to Intimidate Us With Man Who Drives on Motorcycle Through a Really Bad Storm Between Distant Cities, Then Collects Photos of Our Home)
Mentioning someone was in prison for bad things isn't a crime, it's a public service
The "AI" (Slop) Bubble is Already Imploding
"ChatGPT Usage Has Peaked and Is Now Declining, New Data Finds"
The So-called "Sexy" Buckets (AI, Quantum) Cannot Save IBM From Reality, Shares Tank
"No matter how much financial hocus-pocus they use to reclassify revenues to land in the "sexy" buckets (AI, Quantum), it still smells old and musty - just like this company."
Paul Krugman is Wrong About the Scope of Mass Layoffs in the United States
A few years ago society was accelerating its journey towards feudalism, boosted by COVID-19
Links 23/10/2025: Proprietary Blunders and CISA's Latest Disclosure of Holes
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/10/2025: Fast Past (F1), 99.9% Uptime
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 22, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Slopwatch: Google News is Promoting Fake 'Articles' About Fake Xubuntu, Fake Articles About Replacing Windows With GNU/Linux
The quality of the Web deteriorates and unless someone cleans up the mess, real sites will lose an incentive to produce anything
When "AI Layoffs" Mean Layoffs Due to the "AI" Bubble Popping
many people that are laid off by Microsoft claim to be specialists in "AI"
Mysterious grant forfeited, $100,000 from Software in the Public Interest accounts 2023
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Evidence: bullying, student union behaviour: Armijn Hemel's FSFE resignation
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Evidence: psychological abuse, stalking, Galia Mancheva, Susanne Eiswirt ignored by FSFE judgment for Matthias Kirschner
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Helping FSFE scam victims and conference organisers
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Nigerian fraud in FSFE constitution
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Worrying and Amusing Stories of "Clown Computing" Gone Awry
Many of these disasters could be avoided
Links 22/10/2025: Amazon Plans to Replace Workers With Robotics, AWS and Clown Computing in General Ridiculed
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/10/2025: Niri Completely Changes Multitasking and Overview of Diff-ers
Links for the day
Links 22/10/2025: Study on Misinformation by Slop and Heavily Debt-Sabbled Microsoft OpenAI (ClosedSlop) Uses "Browser" as Gimmick/Distraction
Links for the day
They've Already Spent Close to a Million Dollars on Lawyers and Sent Us About 50 KG of Legal Papers (Sponsored by Mysterious Third Party) to Try to Censor Techrights, Without Success
They try to overcompensate with sheer volume for a lack of solid, clear arguments (we are the victims here)
12 Months Ago the 'Hulk Hogan of UEFI' Officially Went 'Tag-Team'
We're actually sort of flattered or proud that such despicable people are so desperate to censor us
"Cloud Computing" Was Always a Joke, But This Week Was the Punchline
Maybe stop following tech trends and fashions
"Cloud Computing" Does Not Mean Safety
Fault tolerance is related to the notion of software freedom
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 21, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 21, 2025
The Fall of Windows: From Something to Nothing
Of course Microsoft will pretend everything is fine and "just trust the hey hi" (AI)